Midnight Menagerie
by PhantomWriter2.0
Summary: When an old friend of Diego's stops by, Diego's pride will be in jeopardy. This new character is sarcastic, devious, and loves to make our favorite saber squirm. Rated T for detailed hunting. Not DiegoxOC
1. Chapter I

_This is just a little story I thought up after reading all the other Ice Age stories involving Diego meeting up with a **female** he met as a younger saber. But, I love guy talk and thought it would be a nice twist on the norm to let him talk to another predatory guy. Hope you enjoy. _

_Disclaimer: I love my Jasper and he is mine, but Diego and the others do not belong to me._

* * *

The enticing scent of miniature pronghorn wafted by the large cat's nose as he lay concealed in the tall grass of the open plains. He sighed as he thought of the large bison that he wished he had time to stalk. His 'herd' was to be moving on later today and a bison would take all of the time he had been allotted to hunt and he wouldn't have time to fill his empty stomach. Just as he was about to pounce on the meal that would keep his hunger satisfied for the next few days, a voice he sometimes wished he could silence forever sounded.

"Diego! Help me! Dieeegoooo!" His ears laid flat against his skull and he pulled himself away from his potential meal with a growl to save the sloth yet again. The grazing pronghorn dispersed as the saber leapt from the grass. Diego traced Sid's path by scent and found the sloth cowering at the paws of a huge, yet sickly-looking black wolf. The other carnivore's teeth were bared into the beginnings of a snarl as he stood over Sid, until, that is he caught the scent of another predator. The wolf turned faster than he looked capable of and Diego was on top of the animal before it had a chance to spit out a warning. Diego noticed an instantaneous flash of recognition seconds before he pounced, but paid no attention to it. Sid looked on in fright as Diego tackled the wolf head on and the two carnivores rolled end over end until the wolf finally landed on its back with Diego pinning it down, a paw on each side of its head. Both animals were snarling until Diego caught sight of the wolf's icy blue eyes and blinked in, what appeared to Sid, as shock.

All signs of aggression disappeared from the saber as he stepped off of the wolf. "Jasper?" The wolf picked itself up from the melting snow beneath their paws, shook himself and sat back on his haunches, his icy blue stare unnerving Sid immensely.

"I was wondering how long it'd take you to recognize me. I thought I was gonna have to beat you to get you to remember." The wolf said with a toothy grin.

"As if," Diego scoffed and gave an equally toothy grin "then I'd _know_ it wasn't you!"

Just then a loud sound of rustling leaves behind Jasper startled the two predators out of their friendly grins and into defensive positions. Diego, however, relaxed as he caught scent of Manny and Ellie. "What happened, I heard Sid scream and fighting!? Manny asked, his face showing that he wasn't as concerned as his voice would lead one to believe. Jasper cast a glance at Diego's relaxed posture and gave him a confused look before dropping his defense posture. He stood straight and backed up slowly to where he was standing beside Diego. Manny caught sight of Jasper and gave him a suspicious glare, to which Jasper responded by lowering his eyes and dropping his tail—a typical non-threatening posture for wolves and sabers alike. Diego was not fooled, though. He knew this particular wolf too well.

"Manny, Ellie, Sid," Diego nodded to each of his friends in turn "this is Jasper, an old friend of mine."

"Pleased to meet you. Any friend of Diego's is a friend of mine." Jasper said, dipping his head in respect.

"How old?" Sid asked cautiously, stepping from behind the tree he had hid behind during the brief fight.

Jasper gave the sloth a glance before answering. "Old enough to know that Diego carried around a dead mouse for a week after he caught it when he was six weeks old." Jasper turned to Diego with one of his signature toothy grins, his icy eyes sparking with amusement.

Diego glared half-heartedly at the wolf and punched him in the shoulder with his paw. "It was the first thing I ever caught and I was proud, so sue me." He explained to his herbivorous friends. Manny seemed to still hold his suspicion and Ellie looked amused while Sid looked about ready to loose his lunch, apparently thinking of a week old mouse being carried around by a miniature version of his best friend.

"So, what are you doing around here again, and what happened to you? You look like crap!" Diego said to Jasper.

"Thanks, I wish I could say the same to you, but it looks like you're doin' pretty good on your own." Jasper said with a light sarcastic undertone.

"Seriously, what happened, you look like you got in a fight with a short-faced bear." Diego commented and Sid moved closer to Manny.

"Close, but no deer. I was ambushed by a couple of hungry sabers looking for an easy meal. Don't know why they thought I'd be easy, though. I think they might 'a been from your old pack." Diego's eyes widened at this, but if Jasper noticed he didn't show it. "Zeke and that sneak I always said would turn on ya' if you didn't watch your back. They were in pretty bad shape, but I wasn't feelin' generous enough to lose." Jasper gave another grin and looked around. "So where's the rest of your little family?" He asked.

"How'd--?" Diego began, but was cut off by a chuckle from Jasper.

"Don't think you guys haven't been noticed. Different herbivores runnin' together is weird enough, but a saber too? I had to check and see if the rumors were true. I guess I shoulda realized it was you hangin' with the leaf eaters." He stopped and gave Manny and Ellie an apologetic look. "No offense intended, of course." He gave a glance toward Diego before continuing. "But Diego was the one who asked me if I thought our prey's families missed them."

"Really," Sid piped up "I thought I was the one who softened you up?"

"Nope, he went soft _way_ before he met you guys." Jasper looked around quickly, ears perked, all signs of humor gone. Diego also went on the alert along with Manny and Ellie—but for a different reason altogether. Just as Manny was about to ask what the wolf heard a howl sounded from somewhere a good distance away. The howl was short and curt and ended with a few chirping barks." Manny watched nervously as Jasper suddenly dropped his alert posture. His tongue lolled from his mouth happily and his tail wagged slightly.

"That would be the she-wolf I'm helping out for the time being. She's expecting and her mate was killed by a group of hunters, so she needs a protector." He explained when he saw the strange looks he was receiving.

"Yeah, and all she could find was you." Diego said teasingly. Jasper rolled his eyes and trotted quickly into the trees, limping slightly.

Just as Manny was about to say something, a howl erupted from the trees no more than a hundred yards behind Manny, startling the two mammoths and Sid. There was an obvious chuckle near the end of the howl as Diego was sure the wolf had heard Sid's startled yelp.

All the animals gathered in the clearing stared into the trees in which the wolf had vanished for quite some time before Manny spoke. "I don't trust him." The bull mammoth deadpanned.

"That much is obvious, but why?" Diego asked coolly.

"He's sneaky and sarcastic and…." Manny trailed off, trying to think of more adjectives to describe the ebony-furred wolf.

"The wolf version of me?" Diego finished, giving Manny a look that said '_and?_'

"Well, yeah, but you're different. He's…" Manny began.

"A wolf!" Sid put in.

"And I'm a saber. Sabers take down mammoths. Wolves would have to be insane to even try. I'm more dangerous to you guys than he is." Diego was beginning to realize that his friends didn't even see him as a threat anymore and that…well, he didn't know exactly how that made him feel, but it wasn't a nice feeling.

"I think he deserves a chance!" All three males raised an eyebrow towards Ellie as she continued. "He did say 'Any friend of Diego's is a friend of mine.'" Ellie explained her point with a bad imitation of the wolf's gruff drawl. Diego, pleased, sat back on his haunches and waited for Manny and Sid to think over the shemmoth's words. Manny's suspicious look seemed to be faltering and Sid was drawing in the sand with a stick.

Diego padded over to the sloth to see what masterpiece he was creating now. As he watched, a crudely drawn wolf appeared and a saber beside it. Both figures appeared to be snarling at an, as of yet, undrawn enemy. Diego's emerald eyes widened as Sid began to draw an ungainly-looking sloth before the two predators. Did Sid really think that he and Jasper would attack the others if Jasper were allowed into the group?

Bile rose in the back of his throat at the conflicting emotions that were suddenly throwing themselves at his slowly softening heart. He grabbed the stick with one paw and brought it down, cracking the thin branch in two. Sid, shocked, looked up into his friend's eyes. Whatever Sid saw in those emerald depths must have comforted the sloth, for he took his clawed hand and smoothed over the grizzly scene he had drawn in the sand. Diego was unsure of what had been unveiled in those few moments, but he hoped it had told Sid what he needed to be able to put those thoughts to rest.

"I guess he can stay." Manny sighed, breaking the unusual trance between saber and sloth. Unbeknownst to Diego and Sid, their mammoth friends had been quietly discussing the black wolf.

"What? We were just talking about him hanging around. He doesn't wanna travel with us." Diego said, stepping towards Manny.

"Now who said that? Maybe I wanna give up my wild bachelor days and hang with some buddies and their girlfriends?" They all turned to see Jasper stepping from the trees, a characteristic toothy grin on his muzzle. When he caught sight of Diego's questioning look, he chuckled lightly and said, "I told you I was coming back."

Diego looked confused for a few moments before rolling his eyes and giving the black wolf a half-hearted glare. "You know I can't understand your crazy singing, you idiot." Diego swiped at the wolf, who ducked and grinned mockingly. Diego caught Manny's stare and straightened up and cleared his throat. "So,_ do_ you wanna stay with us?" Diego asked, barely hiding the hopefulness in his voice.

"It's worth a shot. Plus, I need to eat something besides rabbits. Though…." Jasper looked away; seemingly deep in thought "Cass won't be able to travel for a few weeks. Once the pups are born, she'll be a week in the den…three weeks should be ample time." He looked up, icy eyes flashing with his plan. "So, I'll meet up with you guys in three weeks. Cass'll be fine on her own after that."

"Whoa, you're just going to leave a single mother alone with no one to protect her!?" Ellie said with eyes widened in horror.

Jasper seemed taken back and flustered. "W—well, no, but…Would you guys mind staying here for a while? A month or so?" He looked around the clearing as if looking for an answer. His tail dropped slowly as Manny stared him down until the tip of the ebony appendage brushed the ground. The realization that this was true apprehension coming from his friend hit Diego and he stepped in front of the wolf and stared Manny in the eyes as best he could.

"If he tries anything, I will personally chase him out and, if need be—"

"—kill him." Jasper finished for Diego. Diego shot his friend a look and Jasper only smiled in return. Diego turned his attention back to Manny and nodded once.

Manny, looking a bit surprised, said "Okay then," he glanced at Ellie and Sid "I guess we're staying here for a month or so. Ellie, do you know where the possums are?" Ellie looked as if she had forgotten about them and began searching the trees around them.

"We're right here!" One called from somewhere in the trees overhead.

"Yeah, and we heard everything!" Another called. Ellie looked up and the two possums jumped onto her head, to her tusks, then to the ground. Crash and Eddie walked, sauntered really, up to the new animal and looked him in the eyes. Jasper had to look down at the two and seemed quite amused with the situation.

"Don't hurt our sister." Crash said, emphasizing each word with a poke to Jasper's nose.

"Yeah, or you'll have to deal with _us_!" Eddie added, stepping up beside his brother and giving one final poke to the wolf's nose. Jasper just twitched his nose and said, "So you guys are the infamous possums?"

"Yeah," Crash began.

"What's it to ya?" Eddie finished.

"I like spunk." Jasper said simply and looked up. Manny's eyes showed his amusement and Ellie looked about ready to burst into giggles while Sid's jaw was hanging open. Diego just shook his head and pushed Jasper aside, putting his own nose in danger of being poked.

"Just remember, you twerps, he's a lot faster than I am." Crash and Eddie yelped and hugged one another, looking in mock terror at the newcomer. Jasper grinned, showing sharp white teeth.

"Hey, Lord of the Flame," Diego said with a smirk.

"My tail is not on fire!" Sid shouted, not quite managing an angry voice.

Jasper chuckled. "Okay, we were just about to warn you, but I guess you'll find out on your own."

"What'dya--?"

He was cut off by a battle cry from Eddie. "Bonsai!" Two purple and white blurs shot out from the trees and from those blurs came the sound of dart guns and a barrage of rocks.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Sid cried, holding his arms over his head for protection. Jasper and Diego, laying a few feet from one another, laughed along with Manny and Ellie who lay a lot closer than the two carnivores. Crash and Eddie finally ceased fire when Manny threatened to bury them up to their necks in the dirt.

Jasper rolled over onto his side and stretched out his legs then suddenly sitting back up again, startling Sid. He turned his icy gaze on Diego. "Hey, you remember that sweet she-wolf that pushed you out of that tree?" Jasper asked with a grin.

Sid and Manny chuckled lightly before receiving a glare from Diego. "Yeah, what about her?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to bring that up." Diego narrowed his eyes as Sid, Ellie, Crash, and Eddie all burst into a fit of laughter—or in Ellie's case, giggles. Manny just grinned; no one made fun of Diego much and it was fun to see something really get under the saber's fur. It was also interesting to hear that Diego wasn't as tough as he put on.

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_As always, read and review. I want you to be as honest as you feel comfortable in your reviews. I would do the same for any of your stories. How Jasper met Diego will be revealed soon. Stay tuned!_

_-Phantom_


	2. Chapter II

_I really enjoyed writing (uh typing) this chapter. I love battle scenes and dramatic images. What I love even more is campfire discussion and guy talk. There will be much more of that._

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Manny opened his eyes and blinked a few times to clear the sleep from his eyes. His big brown eyes took in his surroundings slowly. Sid lay on his back with his mouth open on a piece of bark next to Diego, who was sleeping with his back legs out to the side and his head resting on his front paws. Jasper lay stretched out on his side on the other side of Diego with one paw over his eyes. Manny glanced up and saw that his mate's brothers were already awake and probably planning their assault of the day.

Finally, the great bull mammoth's eyes rested lovingly on his mate's sleeping form. His trunk found her swollen belly and he rest his trunk on the warm expanse, feeling the slight movements of the unborn calf within. Manny smiled down at her.

Manny watched as his herd began to rise for the day. Diego rose first, yawning, stretching, and blinking in the soft light of dawn. "'Morning, Manny." Diego rasped. Manny nodded in return. Diego stood and, without a word, padded into the tall brown grass and sparse trees. Manny suspected he was off in search of his breakfast.

Though the mammoth didn't know exactly why, he watched the sleeping form of Jasper closely. Perhaps he still suspected the wolf of evil intentions?

Jasper was jet black except for one front paw and an opposing white ear tip. He was well muscled, but Manny could tell he hadn't been in the best of shape in the past as his ribs just barely showed through his thick fur. There appeared to be a long, thick faded scar running the length of his left side where the fur had not grown back. Manny wondered what could have made such a mark and wondered if it had been a saber--maybe even Diego?

Jasper's ears perked up even though the rest of his body seemed to still be asleep. The wolf's head jerked up and around when a slow howl began from somewhere the right. He listened silently until the sound ended then, without looking around to see if anyone was awake, trotted out of the clearing and broke into a run when another howl sounded, this one more urgent. Manny's instincts told him something was very wrong with the wolf Jasper had identified as Cass.

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Just then a tawny blur burst from the tall grass and skidded to a stop in front of Manny, whose eyes widened when he saw the look of straight, unhidden fear on the usually fearless saber's face. "Wake Ellie," were his simple orders and Manny was too worried to do otherwise. Ellie was about to protest when she saw the look in her mate's eyes. She stood quickly and both mammoths looked to Diego, who had just convinced Sid to wake up. Manny grabbed Sid and threw the sleepy sloth onto his back and Diego took off. Manny and Ellie kept up as best they could.

Diego skidded to a halt in front of them at the edge of a snowy expanse. Diego's emerald eyes widened in an odd mixture of fear and anger when he saw the group of at least twenty humans armed with spears and various other weapons. A lone black wolf stood between the humans and a mound of snow that could only be Cass's den. Diego's heart thudded in his chest. He couldn't let his friend and his potential mate be slaughtered, but he also couldn't let the humans get to Manny, Ellie, or Sid, or even the possums.

His ears picked up the sound of Jasper's snarls and saw his friend's lips pulled back over his brilliantly white fangs. He also heard the pitiful cry of newborn pups and a mother's attempts to comfort them. As Manny, Ellie and Sid caught up, he made up his mind. "If we need you we'll call!" He called back to them.

"No way, you're not going in there alone!" Manny shouted.

"Those humans are here to wipe out any predators, but if they see you guys we won't be able to protect you!"

"Ellie and I can take care of ourselves and I'll look after Sid."

Diego's flashed with contempt for the mammoth's stubborn nature. "Fine, but be careful and stay back until I call."

From atop Manny's head Sid wiped a tear from his eye and whispered to himself, "You too, buddy."

* * *

Saber and wolf stood united before the humans. The humans' faces lit with slight worry and confusion when Diego stepped up beside Jasper and took on a vicious fighting stance, sabers bared. Each group waited tensely for the other to make a move. Jasper took one step forward, wincing as he stepped on his injured leg, raised his muzzle to the heavens and let loose a howl that reverberated through the air hauntingly. He lowered his eyes slowly and his blue eyes were solid ice. His lip curled and a snarl ripped up his throat as he sounded his battle cry and leaped for the throat of the nearest human.

Diego smirked, rolled his eyes, and leaped over the head of the first human, only to collide with a rip the throat from the one behind with his sabers. The human fell. He didn't hesitate to launch at another's throat, but his attack was halted by a spear shaft being thrust against his throat. He pushed the human back and risked a glance at Jasper who was holding his own against three humans. Diego ducked below the human's spear and bit into the two-legged mammal's leg. Blood ran into his mouth and fueled his aggression.

Out of nowhere, a spear was thrust between his thick shoulder blades. He dropped to his side in the snow as the blood spilled from him onto the pristine whiteness. Jasper struggled against his attackers but was effectively halted by a thrown spear barely missing his nose. Diego struggled to his feet and launched a less then accurate attack which landed him between two unarmed humans.

* * *

"I can't just stand here while they fight!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Yeah, we gotta get out there and help them!" Crash said from the trees above their heads.

"I can't watch this slaughter!" Eddie cried.

* * *

Manny charged forward without a word, nearly knocking Sid from his back. Ellie stayed by his side with Eddie and Crash perched on her tusks, pea shooters at the ready. Manny let loose a trumpet that shook the ground beneath their feet and every head turned towards the approaching mammoths, possums, and sloth.

Trunks lashing out like whips, rocks flying through the air, snarls ripping at throats, claws slashing. The battle seemed to last forever—don't they all? In reality, it lasted only minutes, not hours. As Diego's injury began to slow him down too much, Jasper leaped to the rescue of his friend. Diego caught a glimpse of a round-bellied she-wolf defending the mouth of the den with all the viciousness of a mother. He could see why Jasper had offered to help her; she was beautiful with her silvery eyes and shining silver fur. She was a silvery blur in his fading vision.

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_Please read and review. And be honest in your reviews, even if you want to tell me I'm crazy for thinking a saber and a wolf could get along. As long as you can take the time to review._

_-Phantom_


	3. Chapter III

_I really liked the 'aftermath' and guy talk in this one. I have realized that I am very bad at including Sid and (sometimes) the possums into conversations. Manny's pretty easy though and...I'm working on Ellie. Bear with me please. I really don't know where this is going. If I try to plan a story, the notes alone could be a stoy and then I lose interest. When I don't plan it though it starts out very good and strong then gets weaker and weaker until I finally give up on it. _

_So, if you have any ideas that don't involve a DiegoxOC (there are waaaay too many of those) or SidxOC (just plain creepy), I'd love to hear them. I'm not sure if Cass should meet the group or not. I know if she does she'll be really cautious and suspicious at first. _

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Diego groaned and struggled to sit up, but was held down by a long, furry trunk against his shoulder. There was a faint pain at the pressure. He looked up to see who it was and found Ellie's large, warm brown eyes staring worriedly down at him. Diego, still groggy and confused, tried to stretch out his aching shoulder and gasped in pain. A bolt of fire shot down from between his shoulder blades and he went limp, in hopes of stopping the spread of the fire.

"I see you're finally awake." Diego looked up to see Manny towering over him, an uncharacteristically concerned look upon his face with a hint of his usual joking and sarcastic nature.

"Where's Sid?" Diego asked, casually looking around, secretly sensing his own worry.

"He's out getting food for him and the possums." Manny answered, pointing idly in the direction the sloth had gone. Manny sensed Diego's unspoken worry and gave his friend a knowing smile. "Sid's fine. His arm's bandaged 'cause he grabbed a spear from a human so he could help." Diego looked shocked until Manny continued. "He ended up falling off my back." Diego rolled his eyes and began intently searching for his old friend, now that he was sure the others were okay.

As Diego was searching, a loud rumble emanated from the saber's stomach. Manny, Ellie, and Diego's eyes all landed on the saber's stomach. "This could be a problem." Diego stated.

"Nwo it wonwn't," all eyes moved to meet the site of a huge black wolf carrying a medium-sized white rabbit just begging to grow its summer coat of brown. Jasper was limping heavily and Diego glimpsed a deep gash across his friend's right foreleg. Jasper set the rabbit down at Diego's paws. Manny and Ellie threw disgusted looks, but said nothing. "Now who looks like crap?" Jasper teased but then straightened up and gave the saber the most serious look Diego had ever seen on the wolf's muzzle. "But, seriously, you went down hard. How're you feeling?" The concern in his friend's usually teasing voice startled the saber.

"Hey, we're going to go somewhere else so you guys can talk…and eat." Ellie said and Manny nodded. Diego gave an apologetic smile. Manny and Ellie left silently, leaving the two carnivores alone.

"I'm fine," Diego said and received an unbelieving looks from Jasper "Okay, so it hurts like an antler in the gut, but other than that, I'm fine." Diego finished brightly. Jasper just rolled his eyes and lay down heavily a few feet from the saber. "Uh, thanks for the rabbit. I would have had to eat Sid if it hadn't been for you."

"Yeah, and that would have been _so_ terrible." Jasper joked along with Diego.

"So, are you and Cass gonna hook up?" Jasper gave a slightly confused look. "I mean, you did save her and her pups from a pack of humans not long ago. By the way, how many are there?"

Jasper looked away, almost as if in shame. "Two born, one dead." He answered quietly. Silence ensued and both animals did not want to break the silence.

"How?" Diego finally asked in a loud whisper.

Jasper looked him in the eyes then looked away just as quickly. "In the fight, a human ducked past her while she was occupied with another and grabbed a pup out of the den. They're only three days old--when she went after the human the human, he dropped the pup—_three days_ old, Diego, three _days_. He hit the snow and it was too cold. She couldn't get to him fast enough. Damn, I hate humans."

More silence. Diego sniffed at the rabbit but did not eat.

"How did you catch this thing?" The saber sensed his friend's despair turning inward and had to save Jasper from self-hatred. Diego had been down that road before and did not want anyone else to suffer that ugly path.

Jasper brightened noticeably, but he still wasn't back to normal. "When you're hungry, you can do anything!"

"Except kill a bull bison alone," Diego commented wistfully. Diego ran a tongue over his sabers and looked down at the rabbit at his paws. "Not the same." He mumbled, but bit into the flesh anyway. Jasper's gaze fell on a trail of ants moving up the bark of a tree and stayed there until Diego was near finished eating.

"I've already eaten. I think I'm gonna go get a drink of water." He commented and stood before trotting into the tall grass.

Diego struggled to his feet and called for the wolf to wait for him. Diego struggled with each step but managed a fair pace as he caught up with the black-furred wolf. Jasper took off at a slow walk as soon as Diego was at his shoulder.

It took them a while to reach the watering hole, but they managed. Diego collapsed on the loose dirt floor of the bank. "Jasper was panting as he limped to the water's edge and bent his head to drink. The cool water wasn't as fresh as stream or river water, but right now, it didn't matter; it was water and that short walk had tired him beyond compare. "So, did we win?" Diego asked suddenly. Jasper lifted his head and looked back over his shoulder at the saber with a confused look and water dripping from his muzzle. "Did we win the fight? What happened to the humans?" The saber tried again.

"Oh, uh, some of them got away, but we got most of them. Good news is, Cass got to eat and so did I." Jasper stated offhandedly in between laps of the cool, unmoving water. Jasper limped back up the bank and sat back on his haunches.

Diego wrinkled his nose as if he smelled something unsavory. "You ate humans? What'd they taste like?"

"Watch it, kitty. Curiosity killed the cat you know." Jasper said ominously.

"What are you guys talking about?" said Sid as he waddled over to the relaxing carnivores.

"What's gonna kill Diego first: his curiosity, his bravado, or his unending pursuit of females." Jasper finished with a huge grin, showing teeth and tongue. Diego gave the teasing wolf a glare that would have scorched a weaker animal.

"We haven't seen a female saber since…ever." Sid commented.

"Good thing too; he goes crazy around females. I don't blame him either. Female sabers have the most amazing legs." Diego and Sid stared at the wolf, mouths agape. He was actually and truly _drooling_.

"Earth to Jasper. Snap out of it, buddy." Jasper eyes focused and he shook his head as if that would clear his head. "Plus, with Manny and Ellie's kid coming, the last thing we need is a volatile female saber around."

"That's a big ten-four good buddy." Jasper said and laughed. "Hey, Sid, what'dya say we help Diego here get a drink of water?"

"Sure thing. You know I taught Diego how to swim." Sid added proudly causing a groan from Diego.

"Really, now that is a story I'd like to hear," a sly, mocking grin crossed the wolf's muzzle. Sid told the story as Jasper and Sid helped Diego to stand and helped him to the water so he could drink. _'My best friends are a sloth, a mammoth, and a wolf. How screwed up am I?' _Diego thought contentedly as he lapped at the cool water.

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_As I said above, tell me if you have any ideas and I'll be sure to 1) consider them and 2) if I use it, I'll be sure to credit you with the idea. I love this story and do not want it to die, so please help an author out! Be honest in your reviews!_

_-Phantom_


	4. Chapter IV

_Longest chapter ever! I just started and couldn't stop. I owe the idea of telling the herd's origin story to FABCHICKXO's 'Campfire Stories'. I loved the idea and decided to incorporate it into this story seeing as I couldn't think of what should happen next._

* * *

"Where did they go? Where could they have gone? They're both covered in more slashes and bruises and cuts than I've ever seen!" Ellie rambled on as he paced the large space she and Manny had cleared of debris earlier in the day. Their old camp was too far from a good, clean source of water. Diego and Jasper had insisted that they could walk to the water, but Ellie had used her mothering persuasion to convince them to allow the herd to move without too much of a fuss.

"They're fine, Ellie. Quit worrying. We're talking about a saber and a wolf here, not Sid." Manny tried to grab hold of his mate's trunk to slow her down, but she pulled herself from his grasp.

"An injured saber and an injured wolf. That makes them about as good as Sid in a fight!" Ellie ranted, unaware that the objects of the two mammoth's discussion were sitting beside Manny, watching Ellie pace worriedly back and forth. The amusement on the mammal's faces could not be hidden.

Suddenly, Ellie caught sight of the carnivores out of the corner of her eye, turned, and swept Diego into a bone-crushing hug, eliciting a gasp of pain from the cat. Ellie released him immediately and fell into a flurry of apologies, all of which Diego replied to curtly with a ready supply of humor flavoring his tone.

"I sense some deja-vu here, what about you, Manny?" Diego was, of course replying to the moment in which Sid had, in a fit of happiness at discovering his new friend was indeed alive, hugged Diego and caused a similar pain-stricken gasp. Manny grinned and nodded once before returning his brown-eyed gaze to his mate.

Diego limped heavily over to the trunk of a large cypress tree and collapsed at its base. Jasper stood and made his way over to Diego, bent his head, whispered before moving away. The blue-eyed wolf looked back expectantly before loping into the trees behind Diego, his own limp painfully obvious. Ellie gave a questioning glance at the wolf's unexpected retreat, but decided better of asking—Jasper was, after all, not a permanent member of the group. "He'll be back later, Ellie." Diego stated, noticing the shemmoth's glance. Ellie gave a small smile.

Sid began his nightly ritual of making a fire. He gathered sticks from the surrounding area and stacked all the wood he thought he would need by Manny so the mammoth could add wood to the fire, when needed, without having to move from his spot beside Ellie. Sid found two 'spark rocks' and hit them together to make a spark on the kindling. Sid spent a few minutes tending to the fire and making sure a breeze wouldn't blow it out before sitting down beside Diego.

* * *

"Here comes Jasper." Diego announced, picking up the sounds of his friend's approach before the others. Seconds later, Jasper appeared carrying a small chocolate brown bundle of fur gently in his massive jaws. Ellie gasped and Sid stared with an open mouth while the possums raced to greet the wolf. Jasper gently set down the small bundle between his paws. He sat back on his haunches and gazed down at the pup, paying no attention to the others in the group. He looked as proud as if he had been the true father.

Crash and Eddie got as close as they dared—which was nearly on top of the pup—to the two wolves. The pup turned its head to peer at the two new animals and opened its eyes, revealing two golden orbs. The pup blinked and yawned, eliciting an 'Awww' from everyone save Manny, Diego, and Jasper who managed to contain themselves.

"Cass is still not sure about you guys, but I convinced her to let the little guy come." Jasper explained, his icy eyes never leaving the brown bundle between his paws.

"What's its name?" Eddie asked while rubbing the pup behind one of its ears.

"His name's…Diego." Jasper said with a look towards his friend. Diego blinked in surprise, as did the others. Eddie and Crash's hands paused in their rubbing of the pup's ears. "She thought you had died trying to save her and her pups." Jasper said in a whisper just loud enough for the others to hear. "I'm sorry for dragging all of you into that. It was my fight, not yours."

"That's what you do in a herd." Diego said with a weighted smile.

"Now where have I heard that before?" Sid said with a similar smile, glancing at Manny and Diego.

"That is a story." Manny sighed as he realized the conversation had caught the attention of the others.

"We wanna hear it." Eddie said.

"Yeah, we love stories." Crash added.

"I've heard parts of the tale, but never the whole thing. This should be interesting." Jasper grinned his signature toothy grin.

Ellie only stared at Manny with those big green eyes of hers. Manny gave in with a resigned sigh and glanced at Diego and Sid, who nodded their approval.

"Alright, sit back, 'cause it's a long one." Sid announced.

Manny began the tale…"Okay, so it was around noon and…"

* * *

"Look out, look out!" A voice yelled.

"You're going the wrong way!" Another animal yelled.

"The other way!" Yet another voice.

"Crazy mammoth!" Another animal, who just avoided getting hit in the head with his tusks, yelled.

Manny rolled his eyes, not caring at all what these other mammals had to say to him. If they had something to say, they should confront him, and say it to his face.

"Hey do the world a favor," 'A confrontation, this should be entertaining.' Manny recalled thinking to himself "move your issues off the road!" He looked down to see a small short-legged mammal with a trunk that would shame a mammoth. He admired the animal for having the guts to face him, but he also disagreed with the way this animal was going about it.

Manny glowered down at the irritating mammal. "If my trunk was that small- I wouldn't draw my attention to myself pal!" He came eye to eye with the irritation.

His threatening tone seemed to work; the animal trembled, backing off. "Ah, give me a break. We- we've been waddling all day." He gestured to his mate and two little children who peered around from behind the female. Manny's tone turned from threatening to sarcastic and demeaning.

"Oh go ahead. Follow the crowd." He began walking again, "it'll be quieter when you're gone!" He called over his shoulder.

"Ehh, c'mon." The plump gray animal spoke to his mate, looking ahead to make sure the mammoth was out of earshot, "if he wants to freeze to death, let him."

"Are you crazy?" A deodicurus shouted, just missing Manny's foot as he stepped out of the migration, heading to the side. Manny—again--ignored the comment.

As he walked, Manny plucked tough tundra grass from the ground beneath him with his trunk and stuck the morsels in his mouth.

* * *

Sid felt the tree he was sleeping in shake, vibrating from the footsteps of the migrating group. He caught himself just before he fell off of the tree branch. "Hey-hey, I'm up, I'm up!" He struggled, pulling himself up from the branch, to his feet, now standing on the branch. "Hey, rise and shine everybody! Huh? Zack? Marshall? Bernie? Uncle Fungus?" He checked everyone's branch, sighed and slid down the trunk to the ground. "Where is everybody? C'mon guys! We're gonna miss the mi-mi-mi…gration." He felt rejected. He knew he was a bit annoying, but he didn't think his family would just up and leave him.

"They left with out me." He put his hands on his hips, defensively. "They do this every year!" He fisted his paws. Then whined, "Why? Doesn't anyone love me?" He spotted a deodicurus shuffling by. "Isn't there anyone who _cares_ about Sid the sloth?" He asked out loud, expecting some sympathy from this animal. But all the animal did was grunt and waddle away hurriedly.

"Alright, I guess I'll just go by myself." He said, stepping… then… "Ahw… Sick!" And realizing what he had just stepped into. "Hey wide body curve it next time! Ahh, yuck oh." He tried whipping away the 'waste material'. No good. He started walking backwards, wiping at the 'waste material' as he went.

"I can't believe it! Fresh, wild greens! Frank, where did you ever…" A rhino gasped, looking at the bed of greens spread out before him.

"Go ahead, dig in!" Frank said modestly.

"A dandelion!" Carl gasped a second time. "I thought the frost wiped 'em all out." He smiled.

"All but one!" Frank exclaimed in a singsong voice. The rhinos' sudden joy became decimated by a sloth suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Muttering to himself,

"Oh this makes me so… oh I wanna--ah yuck!" Sid exclaimed, shaking his foot. Sid leaned against Frank's horn and tried to get the remainder of the 'waste material' off of his foot. "Ah, this had definitely not been my day I mean--ya know what I'm sayin' buddy?" Sid continued shaking his foot, this time little pieces of 'waste material' shaking off, landing on Carl's face. "Hey, you rhinos, you have really tiny brains, did you know that? No, it's just a fact… no offense. Ah- you probably don't even know what I'm talking about." Sid laughed to himself deeply when something caught his eye.

"Oh! Yumm-o!" He plucked the small yellow flower from its stem. Carl gasped. "A dandelion; must be the last one of the season!" Sid commented and ate the yellow flower off of its stem. "Mmmm."

"Carl-" Frank's voice rose, high pitched.

"Easy Frank. "

"He ruined… our salad." Sid looked down, and discovered what he had done to the salad.

"Oh, my mistake, that was my mistake fellas." Sid attempted to sweet talk his way out, but that apparently proved to fail. Sid backed up as the two massive rhinos stepped forward.

"No, no seriously, let me take care of this. I won't- wont-" Sid tripped over a log, looking to his side and saw a few pine cones laying on the ground next to him, an idea struck him. "Oh what is this? _Pinecones_! Oh my goodness, they're my favorite!" Sid said enthusiastically, grabbing one and crunching it between his teeth. "Mmm. Delicious, that's um…ow. Uhh. Good eatin." He swallowed. "But don't let me hog them all up, oh… no here you have some." He said, shoving a couple in Carl's mouth. "Bon Appetite." He then broke into a run.

"Now?" Frank asked Carl. A moment passed, not wanting the sloth get too far.

"Now!" Carl yelled.

Sid heard the rumbling behind him, looked back and screamed. He collided with a big, furry leg. "Hey!" The mammoth looked to see who had run into him. A sloth?

"Aw man! I wanted to hit him at full speed!" Frank complained. Manny then noticed the two rhinos.

"That's okay, Frank. We'll have some fun with 'em."

"Don't let them impale me," Sid clutched onto Manny's leg begging, "Please, I wanna live!"

"Get off me!" The mammoth shook the sloth off of his leg.

"C'mon you're makin' a scene." Carl tried to persuade Manfred.

"Ah-huh! We'll just take our furry piñata and go if you don't mind," Frank said.

"Hey buddy. If it's not them today, it's just someone else tomorrow." Manny tried to get the sloth off his back… or at least out from behind his leg.

"Well I'd rather not be today, Okay?" Sid said peering around the mammoth's leg.

"Look, we're goanna break your neck, so ya don't feel a thing. How's that?" Carl asked, defensively, and imitating stomping his foot.

"Wait a minute." Manny interjected, cocking his head to the side, "I thought rhinos… were vegetarians."

"An excellent point!" Sid's approving claw came out from behind Manny's leg.

"Shut up." The mammoth said.

"Who says we're gonna eat him after we kill him?" Carl said.

"Yeah, c'mon. Move it." Frank shooed with his foot.

All right, now that was just wrong. Manny supposed even though he didn't want to, he had no choice but to save the stupid sloth. "You know- I don't like animals that kill for pleasure." Manny raised his tusks, defensively.

"Save it." Carl growled, "for a mammal that cares."

In a desperate call for assistance Sid said, "I'm a mammal that cares."

Manny groaned, trying to make this easy. "Okay, look. If either of you make it across that sink hole, in front of you, you get the sloth." Carl and Frank noticed the sinkhole ahead, eyeing each other wearily as if saying, 'maybe it's not worth it.'

Sid decided to nail his woolly protector's point home. "That's right you losers! You take one step and you're dead!" Sid threw a rock into the sinkhole to prove his point. Manny's eyes widened.

The rock just naturally bounced across what used to be a sinkhole. But was now, clearly, a dry one.

"You were buffing huh?" Sid said, his shoulders shrunk, in defeat.

"Yeah," Manny said, nodding, "yeah, that was a bluff."

The rhinos charged, "Get em!" Both rhinos collided thickly with Manny's tusks, sliding the mammoth back a step or two.

"Ahh!" Sid shouted, clutching the mammoth's back leg. Sid's scream climbed an octave when he saw the drop that lay behind the two.

Manny was not about to let some angry pair of rhinos push him around, even if it meant saving this sloth! Manny gathered all of his force, and pushed back with all the strength he could muster, sending the rhinos flying.

"Woo hoo!" Sid jumped in front of Manny, cheering, but then cowered behind the mammoth again, spotting the charging rhinos. Sid looked up, feeling Manny leave him, grab Carl and toss him into the air. Sid marveled, impressed as Carl landed with a thud. Then he screamed as Frank came charging, but then sighed in relief as Manny cradled the remaining rhino in his tusks before propelling him across the way.

Back on the ground to where Carl was: the rhino shook off the blow, and then saw something yellow and delicious in front of his face. "A dandelion?" He asked, happily, and his happiness was soon crushed, just like the dandelion that Frank was thrown on to by Manny.

Sid cheered, "Woo-hoo! We did it! We did it!" He cheered, wrapping his arms around Manny's trunk.

"Wait- wait!" Manny gasped, as the force of Sid, was just enough to push both over the cliff. As fate would have it, the slope was just a steep slide all the way to the bottom. They landed awkwardly with Sid still clinging to Manny's face.

Sid looked into Manny's eyes and, hoping to get on the mammoth's good side, said, "You have beautiful eyes." Sid smiled, still hugging the mammoth's trunk.

"Get off my face." Manny commanded, standing, and forcing the sloth to slide off his trunk.

"Oh, you and me, we make a great team, don't we?" Sid followed behind Manny, "Wha'dya say we just…head south together?" Sid suggested; he had never migrated with someone before.

"Great, yeah, why don't ya just jump up on my back, relax the whole way." Manny said sarcastically.

"Wow, really?" Sid said, humbled by the appealing offer.

"No." Manny said, plainly.

"Wait, aren't you going south?" Sid questioned, noticing the direction the mammoth was going, "Change of seasons, migration instincts, any of this… a-ringin a bell?"

"I guess not, bye!" Manny replied.

"Okay then, thanks for the help, I can take it from here." Sid waddled in the opposite direction, only to be spotted by the two angry rhinos.

"Hey you over-grown weasel!" Carl called, "Wait till we get down there!"

Manny heard the surprisingly soft footfalls of the sloth behind him and sighed inwardly. "Whoa, this whole south thing is way over-rated. The heat, the crowds, who needs it? I mean, isn't this great, you and me, two bachelors knockin about in the… wild?" Sid gestured to the open space around them with his arm.

"No… you just want a body guard, so you don't become somebody's side-dish." Manny glared at the sloth.

"You're a very shrewd mammal." Sid said, pointing towards Manny with one eye half-closed, "Okay then you lead the way Mr. Big… ahh… didn't get the name?" Sid said.

"Manfred."

"Manfred, yuck, how 'bout, Manny, the moody mammoth, or Manny the melancholy. Manny the-" Sid gasped, and ran up a near by leafless tree trunk, seeing Manny's effective glare.

Manny grabbed the tree, with his trunk, glared at the sloth threateningly, "Stop following me." He released the trunk, which bounced back and forth a few times before the sloth slid down the trunk.

"Okay, okay, so you've got issues, look you wont even know I'm here, I just… zip the lip. When I say Mmph, I'm Mmph." Sid said, gesturing with his hands. Unfortunately for Manny, the silence didn't last for long.

* * *

"That story never gets old!" Diego exclaimed, laughing and somehow coughing at the same time. Jasper and the twins were laughing along right beside him while Ellie went into a fit of giggles.

"How did you put up with that?" Crash asked between laughs.

"I honestly do not know." Manny replied, glancing at Sid, who was smiling as he tended to the fire.

"Alright, my part." Diego said, recovering his small amount of dignity.

"What?" Sid looked up from the fire, "I don't think we need to hear about you hunting down and disemboweling some helpless animal."

"You won't understand if I don't explain what happened before I met you two." Diego said, staring into the flames. Jasper knew this part of the story and knew Diego's feelings about it were not…cheerful.

"Wha'dya mean?" Sid asked.

"He means that he'll explain everything if you'll just listen!" Jasper raised his voice, and gave a near-glare to the sloth. Sid sat down beside Diego and didn't say another word. Jasper caught the look Diego sent his way and nodded.

"We—my pack and I actually hadn't eaten anything except rabbits for about four days by this time. So we were a bit hungry. When we get hungry, we get…" the saber trailed off, thinking of a word that would fit.

"Grumpy?" Ellie offered. Diego smirked and nodded.

"Yeah, grumpy. No more than a month before, the humans had found our dens and attacked…"

* * *

"Oh look at the cute, little baby, Diego." Soto said with mock adoration in his accented voice. "Isn't it nice he'll be joining us for breakfast?"

"It wouldn't be breakfast without him." Diego replied, coolly.

"Especially since his daddy wiped out half of our pack and wears our skin to keep warm." Soto spat, "An eye for an eye, don't you think!"

Diego narrowed his eyes, "Let's show that human what happens when he messes with sabers."

"Alert the troops. We attack at dawn," Soto commanded. Diego turned to go when Soto had an additional though, "oh and Diego, bring me that baby… alive. If I'm going to enjoy my revenge, I want it to be_ fresh_!" Soto growled. Diego returned to tell the other sabers the plan. Like a lone sentry, Sot stayed and watched the humans. The baby tottered, attempting to walk. Before he could fall, his father picked him up and hugged him, and carried him into the deer skin tent.

* * *

Diego leaped from rock to rock until he returned to where the rest of the pack was gathered. He leaped onto a large boulder and looked around him at the three other sabers. Zeke was energetically chewing on the bone of a long-dead antelope while Oscar lay sprawled on his side, groaning. Lenny glared openly at his pack's second-in-command.

"Glaring won't help raise your position in the pack." Diego stated, leaping easily from the boulder. "Soto has a revenge plan."

Zeke and Oscar both sighed while Lenny's glare dissipated.

Diego ignored them and continued. "We attack the camp at dawn. Soto has sent me to get the baby while you three distract the rest of the humans." They all sighed now, though Diego's sigh was inward. Ever since the pack had been thinned down to five, Soto had become obsessed with revenge. His attempts to thin the humans as harshly as they had the sabers had been…none-to-effective.

Diego lay down with his back against a cool boulder and watched Zeke try to keep his bone away from the ever-hungry Oscar. He sensed the approach of Lenny and looked up to see the lean tiger. "You're only second-in-command because you're Soto's brother." Lenny said distastefully.

"_Half_-brother," Diego snarled, "and that's not the only reason. He trusts me more than any of you. Even when we had the others, I was still second-in-command."

* * *

"Soto…was your brother?" Manny said, clearly startled, though anyone who didn't know the story didn't know the cause. "So, I—?"

"Shhh, Manny, don't ruin the story!" Eddie and Crash said simultaneously. "How many other siblings do you have?" The possums then asked.

"_Half_-brother, Manny." He corrected, "I had a sister and Soto." Diego told the possums.

"What--?" Sid began but was cut off by a 'Shhh!' from Ellie and the twins.

Dawn came early for the restless sabers. Soto raised them from their sleep as the first light crept over the rocks. "The time is now." The pack rose silently from their warm nests, stretched, yawned, and ran a quick tongue through their fur.

Soto lead the way down the rocky slope. Each tiger struggled to keep their paw steps as silent as possible for they knew the tamed wolves that guarded the humans' dens could hear as well as sabers. Zeke winced when he slid on a rock, causing a pebble to roll down the slope and make a seemingly loud clatter against the ground. The tamed wolves' ears perked and their heads rose to sniff the air. They caught the scent, stood and barked to alert the humans of the intruders.

* * *

Sid thought he had been the only one to notice Jasper's muted growl at the mention of 'tamed wolves'. Sid wondered what that little growl could mean. He decided to think on it later and question the wolf endlessly about the little slip up.

* * *

_Jasper's past will soon come to light, but I don't want him to just announce it to the others. I want it to be a subtle invitation for him to tell his story and his and Diego's past. I'm just as excited as you are about this new chapter. Honesty is appreciated! Also, any critic of Jasper would be helpful. I love him, but I'm not sure what you all think of him._

_-Phantom_


	5. Chapter V

_Okay, so this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but that last one was like two chapters in one! So, please forgive me. I'm getting tired of rewriting the Ice Age script. It is taxing and boring. I mean, I love the movie and all--obviously--but it is very boring rewriting something when you aren't allowed to change anything._

* * *

The fight began the instant the saber-skin clothed humans emerged from their deer skin dens and caught sight of the sabers in their camp. Spears flew and tamed wolves and sabers snarled. Diego stalked towards the lead human's den and padded silently inside, his eyes fixated on the child before him. He looked up angrily when a human female snatched the child away from him. He leaped for her, but she ran past him and out of the den. Diego raced after her, leaping over rocks and shrubs. She tried to run under a rock ledge but was cut off by Diego. She dashed through the shallow river behind her and Diego followed without hesitation, feeling the freezing water splash against his thick coat and run between his claws.

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait! What happened to you being afraid of water?" Sid interrupted. When Diego looked around, he saw that the others had similar perplexed expressions upon their faces—Sid had long since told them about Diego's fear.

"I was a _real_ saber back then. I didn't have fears." He explained cryptically, not meeting anyone's eyes. "_Anyway_," Diego said suddenly with a glare meant for Sid.

* * *

The human ran up a large rock that seemed to hang perilously over the lip of the waterfall. Diego pursued. The human looked from the falling water to the snarling saber with equal amounts of fear dancing in her eyes. She took one last look at Diego, buried her child's face in her chest and…jumped. Shocked by the human's apparent suicide, Diego stepped up to the edge and looked over, growled and returned to his pack.

'Soto's gonna kill me faster than a spear to the heart.' Diego thought. He reached a ledge and looked down at his pack. "There's Diego. Fall back!" He heard Soto shout and the other followed him up the slope to meet Diego.

Soto met up with Diego. "Where's the baby?' Soto snarled, furious.

"I lost it over the falls." Diego looked down in shame momentarily.

"You lost it?" Soto's voice raised a degree in disbelief before hardening into an impenetrable mask. "I want that baby, Diego."

"I'll get it." Diego assured his leader.

"You'd better," The larger saber circled him threateningly, "unless you want to serve yourself as a replacement?' When he received no response from Diego he continued. "We'll go up to Half Peak. Meet us there. It had better be alive." Diego did not look up at Soto.

"Can we trust you with that, Diego?" Lenny sneered, obviously bringing up the two's earlier conversation.

"Let's go," Soto ordered and Diego parted company with his pack.

* * *

"Wow, being a saber sounds tough." Ellie mused, a hint of sadness in her tone. Diego did not notice the pity in Manny's eyes as he stared into the flames. Jasper's gaze moved around the clearing, studying the varied looks of pity, disgust and sadness in the faces gathered there.

"You were a jerk!" Eddie remarked suddenly, looking at Diego accusingly.

"Yeah, a big jerk," Crash added. Diego looked up curiously. "You killed that poor kid and its mother!"

"For no reason!" Eddie interjected.

The light came back into Diego's eyes in the form of anger. "Have you not been paying attention? They killed _half_ my _pack_! They killed my sister and her two cubs!" Diego's eyes shone brighter than the fire before him. Ellie's eyes widened into saucers. Crash and Eddie's jaws dropped in sync—as always. Sid ran to the saber and threw his arms around Diego's thick neck. Diego visibly relaxed only enough for an annoyed expression to flit across his face. Sid pulled his arms away when he felt his friend's anger ebb away.

"How about we save the rest of the story for tomorrow night?" Manny stated energetically, obviously trying to give Diego the time and space he needed. The others nodded enthusiastically and settled back, pleased to be left to think over this new information about their carnivorous pal.

* * *

Manny couldn't have known what Diego had lost in that fight between his pack and the humans, but…he should have. He should have known there was so much anguish over the subject hiding within his secretive friend.

As the bull mammoth watched, the flames Sid had meticulously built up began to dissipate. Manny let his eyes drift around the clearing. Sid lay curled up in a ball on a piece of bark next to Diego who lay on his unscarred side, showing the results of the injury that had nearly killed the saber. Manny's eyes drifted over Jasper's own scar and he was, once again, left to wonder at what might have made such a mark. Manny cleared his mind of those thoughts as the wolf was still a mystery to them all and he decided that he had no hope in figuring out the ebony-furred carnivore's past. Though, he would like to find out how Diego and Jasper met. 'Maybe tomorrow' the mammoth thought as he watched a chocolate ball of fluff scramble over Jasper's side, up to his face, and collapse across the larger wolf's muzzle. The pup let out a heavy sigh and fell back into dreams. Manny smiled as he drifted off into his own dreams.

* * *

_I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Tell me what you think. I know there are more than just three people reading this! I want to hear from you! Even if you just want to tell me my profile page is too long! I need some critique here!_

_By the way, if there are any Ellie fanatics out there, I would love some hints on how to write her. Eddie and Crash as well. I think I've got Manny and Diego down. Sid...I'm working on. But the others...I don't even know where to begin!_

_-Phantom_


	6. Chapter VI

_Okay faithful readers, there is a quote from the new Ice Age movie somewhere in this chapter. If you can find it, you get...something. Maybe a free story request...I don't know. _

* * *

Jasper cursed his lacking canine night vision once again as he tripped over a thick root. Sure, the large wolf's ebony coat allowed him to hide in the night perfectly, but his night vision would not allow him the thrill Diego found in hunting in the darkest of nights.

The small bundle of fur Jasper held tenderly in his jaws grunted as the larger wolf got back to his feet. Jasper thanked the stars that his leg was recovering—he couldn't keep eating carrion forever—and trotted towards Cass's den.

Jasper did not announce his approach because he thought Cass might have fallen asleep waiting for him to return with her lil' Diego, so he was unprepared when an alarming snarl came from the darkness; he hadn't realized he was already at the mouth of the den. He froze as instinct commanded him before he heard a cautious sniffing of the air. He set lil' Diego gently on the ground and grinned down at the yawning mouth of the female wolf's den.

Cass saw the flash of white from his teeth and caught sight of the pup at his paws. She darted forward and nuzzled the sleeping pup. Jasper caught the flash of gratitude in the mother's silver eyes before she snatched the pup up in her slender jaws and carried him into the den. Jasper stepped to the mouth and cleared his throat. "Mind if I join you?" He asked, knowing that a mother's den was a place that only her most trusted friends were allowed--some mothers didn't even allow their mates in the den. Cass's slender head poked out of the mouth, looked him in the eyes until he had to blink, and nodded before darting back down the tunnel.

Jasper followed more slowly. He could not see but he could sense that the unnervingly narrow tunnel would soon widen out and open into a large cavern. His relief was evident as he stepped into the cavern where Cass lay with lil' Diego.

"I know it's tight, but it's easier to defend that way." Cass explained.

"No complaints here." Jasper chuckled—albeit a bit nervously--before his expression turned serious. "You know…they really want to meet you."

The she-wolf's gaze shifted away from the icy blue eyes. "How did they like lil' Diego?" she asked, running a tongue over the pup's head as he suckled sleepily

"They oohed and awed at everything the little rascal did." He told her, watching the pup yawn and curl in on himself. The chocolate fur rose and fell with each breath he took. "You should come tomorrow night. They're telling the story of how they all met and...I must say, it has to be one of the most interesting stories ever told." Jasper chuckled, his chest heaving with the effort of making his laughter silent. Suddenly, his jaws split into a huge yawn and he turned to leave.

"Wait," Cass called and grabbed the tip of his black tail in her mouth to emphasize her words. He looked back over his shoulder and she released his tail. "Can you—will you stay here…tonight?" Cass looked away in embarrassment so she didn't see the huge grin that crossed the ebony wolf's muzzle.

"Sure, I'll stay, if you insist." He said teasingly and lay down beside the silver she-wolf. She leaned forward quickly and licked the white tip of his right ear. He looked surprised by the affection and she only smiled sweetly before laying her head down on her paws. Jasper watched her until her breathing became shallow and her eyes began to flutter with unknown dreams. 'I've got my paws full with this one' he thought to himself with a smile and laid his head on his paws. After a few minutes he dragged himself forwards a little so the two lay nose to nose.

* * *

"How're you feeling the morning?" Ellie's cheery voice asked when she saw Diego laying on his side by the watering hole.

"Fine; my shoulder's a little stiff, but that's normal and it still hurts when I run." Diego offered, knowing Ellie wouldn't accept just a simple 'I'm fine.'

Ellie smiled and walked over to the lounging saber, surprisingly making very little sound on the soft earth. "Okay, that's your physical health, now how about your mental well-being?" Diego looked up at the female mammoth warily, wondering what she was getting at. "That…story last night….Were you close to your sister?"

Diego's silence made Ellie wonder if she had over-stepped her boundaries, as she so often did with Diego. Just as she was about to apologize he spoke, "Yeah, we were pretty close. When Soto and I were evicted from the pack, we said we would take it back from our father when we were ready. Our father was a tyrant."

"Why were you evicted? I thought you and Soto were the leaders?' Ellie asked, even more confused now.

Diego chuckled lightly, realizing her thoughts. "No, no, when a male saber is old enough for him to be a threat to his father, he is evicted from the pack to start, or take over, one of his own. Soto and I were evicted at the same time since we were born only a month apart. We took over the pack from our father nearly a year later. Soto was the cubs' father." Ellie didn't know what to say. For once, she was speechless.

* * *

"Wow," is all she could come up with. Diego smiled at her lack of words.

"Attack!" Came the battle cry as the possums leaped from opposing trees and sent a wave of small pebbles down on Sid's unsuspecting head.

"Hey, ow, ow, ow! Stop it!" Sid tried in vain to protect his head from the assault. He stepped backwards and tripped over a thick vine. His foot became snared in the vine and he was yanked upwards when the other end of the vine wrapped around the two possums and, unceremoniously, yanked them from their respective perches with an undignified yelp. Both possums hung ungracefully from the swinging vine.

"Score one for the sloth!" Sid said while hanging upside down beside Crash and Eddie and pumping the air with his fist, a huge, triumphant grin plastered on his goofy face. The possums crossed their arms, while still hanging from the vine, and sent identical glares at the sloth hanging beside them.

* * *

"Okay, so back to the story!" Eddie announced once all were settled around the fire.

"Wait, where's Jasper?" Ellie interjected. Everyone looked around for him, just noticing the wolf's absence. All eyes turned to Diego who was pretending to nap. He felt the eyes on him and looked up.

"What am I, his keeper? I don't know where he is."

A loud rustling in the brush to the left of Diego called all attention. From the long brown grass, stepped Jasper and another wolf with a coat of shimmering silver and equally shimmering eyes. Her tail was down, nearly between her slender legs, and her head was level with her back, causing her to have to look up at the animals gathered around the fire. Her eyes showed the near-fear in her eyes. She glanced down as her pup came bounding into the circle of light cast by the crackling flames and stood on his hind legs, trying desperately to understand his mother's anxiety.

"Welcome!" Ellie said, finally breaking the tense silence. "I'm Ellie, this is my mate, Manny," Ellie pointed to each animal in turn with her trunk, "my two bothers, Crash and Eddie," Cass sent a questioning look at Jasper who grinned and returned with a look that said, 'I'll explain later' "that's Sid, and you've already met Diego."

"Hi Cass, I'm Sid! Nice to meet you!" Sid announced, stepping toward the she-wolf warmly. She took half a step back and Sid stopped his advance.

"She knows your name, Sid. Ellie just told her." Diego remarked, sending the she-wolf—what he hoped was--a comforting glance.

Manny and Ellie chatted quietly while Jasper tried to calm Cass's nerves enough for her to lie down between himself and Diego. Sid tried to help, but his mouth got the better of him and he received a glare from both Diego and Jasper when he asked the she-wolf if she would mind letting him pup-sit lil' Diego. Cass finally lay down next to Jasper with her head resting lightly on his broad back and lil' Diego lazily chasing Eddie's tail in the dirt beside Manny.

Once everyone was settled, "Alright, on with the story!" Manny announced.

"Wait, we wanna hear how a wolf and a saber became friends first!" Eddie and Crash demanded in unison, gazing at the mentioned mammals, who looked at one another and shrugged.

"If you're sure you wanna hear it…" Jasper said, attempting to shrug off the idea.

"Duh," Ellie, the possums, and Sid all said simultaneously.

"Okay, okay, we'll tell the story," Diego said, looking to Jasper for the go-ahead. The wolf nodded and he felt Cass's ears and eyes open as he began the story.

"It's common practice for different species of predators' territories to overlap. My pack's territory overlapped Diego's enough to include both the packs' water sources, so we saw each other quite often…"

* * *

"Can I please go to the lake?" A young wolf pup begged, all the while hopping around on his proportionally long legs and spinning in misshapen circles. The pup's mother looked down on him with amusement in her eyes and finally gave in to the pup's begging.

The pale russet she-wolf sighed and dropped her shoulders slightly in defeat. "Alright, but you have to be back to the den before sundown. Will you promise me that, Jasper?" The pup looked up into his mother's golden eyes adoringly and nodded in understanding and an unspoken promise. "Go, have fun and be safe!"

As the young wolf raced away, he howled in glee as a reply to his mother's worries. He was finally free and he wanted to relish in the moment. Ever since the cough had taken his brother and sisters, his mother had worried over her only son without release. While he understood her motives, he still didn't enjoy being cooped up in the den or in camp all day and night. Sure, there were other pups his age and his mother often had to care for them, but they didn't replace her own lost children. He howled once more when he caught sight of the shimmering surface of the pack's shared lake.

Jasper's paws skidded in the dirt as he tried desperately to stop his forward movement. He ducked behind a clump of bushes after catching sight of two adult sabers—one adult and one male--with a younger saber with them. As he watched, one of the adults slid into a hunter's crouch and began to glide across the plains stealthily before straightening up and looking back over his shoulder at the younger saber. 'He's learning to hunt,' Jasper concluded and settled down to watch.

The smaller saber dropped gracefully into the hunter's crouch and began to imitate the larger male. His first few steps were unsteady, but he soon found his balance and moved forward, seemingly effortlessly. Once he had reached where the older male had stopped, he sprung into the air and trotted happily back to the adults. Jasper could see the displeased look on the elder male's face from his position and wondered what the male had found wrong. The pup strained his ears to hear what they were saying, but he was too far away. All he knew was that, as soon as the older male began to speak, the young male's earlier pride disappeared completely and when the female attempted to comfort him, the older male snarled at her.

* * *

"So who's the big bad saber?" Crash asked from where he sat on Ellie's foot/

"Shh, we're getting to that." Jasper said, quieting the possum and Ellie, as she was just about to ask another question.

"You really saw all that?" Diego asked quietly, staring into the fire.

* * *

"Yeah, I did." He answered simply.

Jasper watched as the adult sabers left the young male to practice his hunting alone. The young male's tawny spotted coat was covered by a thin layer of fine dust and his emerald eyes were dulled by the words the older saber had said.

Jasper decided to tempt fate and approach the other carnivore. He knew that if anything went wrong, wolves were faster than adult sabers and that a young wolf could easily outdistance a younger, faster juvenile saber. The young wolf took a deep breath and stepped from his hiding place.

At the sound of rustling leaves, the saber noticed the wolf pup and regarded him with a guarded expression. The saber got to his feet, but did not take up a defensive stance; instead his demeanor was one of curiosity. 'As they say, curiosity killed the cat.' Jasper thought to his amusement.

"Who are you?" came the wary question from the feline.

"I'm Jasper," he replied with a friendly wag of his tail.

"Uh…Diego. Are you from the wolf pack we share or territory with?" The saber was still wary of the wolf pup.

"Yeah, I've never seen a saber up close before." Jasper commented, trying to get the other mammal to talk.

"Me neither, I mean, I've never seen a wolf up close before." Diego flustered and Jasper couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him.

"So, who were those others with you?" Jasper cocked his head to the side and gazed at Diego quizzically.

"That was my dad and my mom." Diego answered quietly, apparently thinking of what his father had said to him. Jasper wished he knew just what the old saber had said. The pup concluded that he'd have to cheer this cub up.

Jasper sat back on his haunches, watching the cub out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly, the ungainly-looking wolf charged across the short distance between the two, eliciting a shocked expression from Diego, and pounced fully on the cub with his over-sized puppy paws. Jasper stood over the larger carnivore and panted happily, exposing his long white teeth and bright pink tongue.

When Diego realized that the pup hadn't actually gone mad and attacked him out of spite, he gathered his strength and threw the smaller Jasper off him and proceeded to pounce full-heartedly on him, but Jasper got to his paws quickly and evaded the attack by jumping sideways as only young animals can do. Diego leaped again, quicker than the wolf could think, and pinned the pup. Diego's eyes shone with joy and Jasper's tongue hung from the side of his grinning mouth.

"We met nearly everyday after that and when our parents finally took us on the hunt with them and showed us the skills we had yet to learn, we went out together and practiced." Jasper said with a content expression that showed how much he had enjoyed those carefree days. Diego wore a similar expression. Lil' Diego tottered sleepily toward his mother, but didn't make it and instead collapsed across Diego's massive paws. Diego and Jasper saw the amusement in everyone's eyes and wondered how they would react to what they were about to hear. "That is, until…"

* * *

_Ooh, cliffhanger. I hope this is enough Jasper for everyone! I really enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you all enjoy reading it. By the way, I've been wondering...does anyone think Jasper is a 'Mary Sue' character. Please say he's not...wait, if he is then tell me he is, but if he isn't...Please tell me he isn't!_

_-Phantom_


	7. Chapter VII

_Did anybody find it? The quote I mean. Anyway, another mainly Jasper/Diego chapter. I know Diego is a little out of character in his part, but remember that 1) he was not even a year old then and 2) he was dealing with an emotional mother that had just lost her only son and his best friend. Keep that in mind while you read._

* * *

The now year-old unlikely pair was hunting when Diego caught something moving out of the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around to see what it might be, but saw nothing and that worried him. Prey would not hide in the grass from two predators; they would run and hope they were fast enough. Diego turned his attention back to his friend, who pounced on something moving underneath the snow and dove head first into the powdery substance. Diego smiled and shook his head at the wolf's antics. Sabers would never hunt like that. Jasper padded proudly back to Diego and dropped three plump lemmings onto the snow at his paws.

"Show off," Diego mumbled, rolled his eyes and stood, "let me show you how _real_ predators hunt." Diego dropped into a hunter's crouch with all the grace of a jungle cat and began to move fluidly forward, toward a small herd of pronghorn. An adult pronghorn would be too much for the young saber, but a sub adult would be an easy kill. Jasper picked up one of the lemmings, tossed it into the air, and caught it in his jaws as it fell.

Diego stalked steadily closer. He knew he had to get as close as possible because, all though, young sabers were faster than adults, they still weren't long distance runners like wolves. Diego stopped, as he was as close as he was going to get without giving away his presence. Diego picked out a slower female and started the chase. He leaped from his hiding place with a roar and the startled pronghorn scattered.

Just as he was narrowing in on his prey, he heard a yelp and Jasper cried out, "Diego!" Diego instantly forgot all thoughts of his hunger and turned. What he saw made is blood run cold. Three humans dressed in deer and mammoth skins surrounded the ebony wolf and were closing in on him. Diego snarled, drawing two of the humans' attention and launched himself at one of them, only to be knocked back by the blunt end of a spear being thrust into his broad chest. The impact knocked the breath from Diego and he struggled desperately to catch his breath as a human came at him with a large rock with a blunt end and a pointed end tied with leather strips to a fat stick. His claws scrabbled for purchase against the snow, but he found nothing and the human was upon him with the club.

"Jasper!" Diego cried out once before the club came down upon him. The last thing he saw before the blackness came was the humans dragging Jasper away with a long, thick strip of leather around his neck.

* * *

Jasper paused in his verbal reminiscing to clear his throat and answer any questions the herbivores were likely to have. Ellie's face was one of horrid sadness and as he watched, Manny's trunk wrapped around hers and he squeezed in a comforting gesture, though his eyes betrayed his downward spirits. The possums were, for once in their lives, speechless and only sat by Sid silently, their eyes not leaving the ground. Sid was quietly poking a stick into the dying flames.

Jasper decided, as he often did, to lighten the mood. "Hey, it turns out alright. I'm here aren't I?" He asked; his voice cheerful and his icy eyes bright. That seemed to lighten their spirits enough to relieve a smile from most everyone.

"Yeah, but--?" Manny began, but was cut off by two voices.

"So, what happened?" The twins asked in unison. Jasper chuckled and shook his large head slowly.

"I'm getting to it," He heard Cass yawn and turned to see her gazing tiredly at lil' Diego, "right after I take Cass and lil' Diego back to the den." He said, with a jovial grin. The she-wolf was about to argue when she saw lil' Diego yawn and curl into a tight ball on Diego's paws. She nodded and allowed Jasper to stand and scoop up the little chocolate-colored pup in his jaws. The two wolves left without a sound; leaving the others to ponder the story they had just been told.

Diego stretched his forelegs out in front of him, unsheathed his claws, and dug them into the soft earth. He then pulled his legs back under him and lay his head down on his paws and closed his eyes. "Wake me when he gets back."

* * *

"Here, let me carry him; you're still hurt." Cass offered as the silver and black wolves walked back to Cass's den.

"No, you're tired." His voice was muffled by the pup's fur in his mouth, but she still heard his stubborn pride leaking though. 'If there was anything every male had, it was pride and stubbornness.' She thought with a sigh.

They reached the den and Jasper set lil' Diego down. The pup scampered down the tunnel, into the cavern below. "Why were you se scared back there?" he asked, tilting his head in his usual way. Cass giggled at the black wolf's antics and shook her head. 'And some are just plain cute,' she thought happily to herself, finishing her earlier line of thought.

"I've never been that close to a mammoth before, let alone two, and you know I'm still cautious around Diego."

"You named your pup after him!" He laughed.

"Yes, and I'll admit that he helped save my pup and I'm grateful for it, but that doesn't change the fact that he is a saber." Jasper started to say something, but decided against it; he really didn't want to argue with her over his best friend.

She sensed this and relaxed as well, her gaze becoming apologetic. "I'm sorry, I know you're very good friends. Will you tell me the rest of the story sometime?" She asked and buried her muzzle into his chest.

He sighed contentedly. "Sure, whatever you want." Her own contented sigh mingled with his. The two wolves stayed like that for awhile, only separating when they heard lil' Diego's hungry bark.

* * *

Diego jumped when he heard a loud bark right by his ear. His head flew up and his eyes went wide as he looked around the clearing. The others were trying to contain their laughter. Diego glanced at Jasper, who was grinning brightly, tongue lolling and teeth shining. Diego's face was stern, but his eyes showed his amusement.

"I'm back," Jasper said and lay down next to the saber with a grin.

"Well, let's get on with the story!" Sid exclaimed, swinging a burning stick around in the air.

"Watch where you're swingin that thing!" Manny shouted as Sid swung the stick in an arc that just barely missed the bull mammoth's trunk.

"Alright, back to the story!" Jasper announced.

"Let me tell what happened when I woke up first." Diego said. Jasper gave a confused look.

"Something happened?"

"Yeah, and the only way you're gonna find out is if I tell the story."

"Then, by all means, go right ahead." Jasper bowed his head teasingly and gestured with his paw.

* * *

Diego groaned in pain as light came back into his world. He blinked open his eyes and found that his head hurt like it never had before and that it was nearly sunset. He struggled to put his paws beneath him and stand. His head ached and one of his paws was bleeding from his desperate attempt to escape. He began the long walk home when he caught scent of a wolf. He froze, scenting the air for the wolf, gathering information. The wolf was female and she was leaking anxiety. He wondered if the she-wolf was Jasper's mother and decided to wait for her.

A pale russet she-wolf came around a bush, her eyes wild, and almost didn't notice the saber. She stopped mid-stride when she spotted him and her eyes were fearful. Diego took a shaky step forward, but stopped when the she-wolf backed up.

"Are you Jasper's mother?" He asked quietly. The she-wolf's eyes went wide with shock and then narrowed in suspicion.

"Yes, but what is it to you? What have you done with my son?" Her accusations stung the saber in a way he hadn't experienced before.

"I didn't do anything to him. We've been meeting here almost everyday and…and today…" He turned away, trying to hide the tears pricking at his emerald eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I couldn't save him." Diego's mumblings were nearly incoherent, yet the she-wolf understood enough to know that something terrible had happened to her only son. She stepped towards the young saber.

"Just tell me what happened." She prodded as gently as she could.

Diego looked up at her, his eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears, "Humans, they came out of nowhere and…and…they knocked me out and they dragged him away." Diego shook his head violently to clear his eyes and looked back up.

"What is your name little one?" Diego seemed surprised by this line of questioning and so was slow to answer.

"Di—Diego," he stuttered.

"Thank you, Diego." She said resolutely and turned to leave.

"Wait," Diego called and the she-wolf glanced back over her shoulder, "what are you going to do?"

"Nothing, there is nothing I can do. The humans have captured so many of our pups and tamed them and trained them to protect them from sabers and wild wolves and to help during the hunt. There is nothing we can do to save my pup." Her soothing voice was filled with the desolation of a dying animal and Diego felt his heart clench in his chest as he watched her walk away; paws and tail dragging, ears and head down. It was a heart breaking sight.

* * *

"I'd always worried that she would never find out what happened to me. Thanks buddy." Jasper said; his eyes wistful and sad. "I really appreciate it."

"No problem." Diego glanced at the possums who looked like they were trying to hold something in. Suddenly, the two grabbed hold of one another tightly and wept loudly. Diego rolled his eyes and looked to Sid who looked about ready to do the same. Even Manny's eyes were misty while tears ran freely down Ellie's face.

"We're never letting our baby out of our sights." She stated suddenly, poking Manny in the shoulder for emphasis. Manny nodded slightly in agreement.

"So, you were with the humans?" Sid asked while wiping his eyes with one claw. Jasper nodded and continued with his part of the story.

* * *

_Okay, so I want to know your thoughts! I have about 60-70 hits on this story and only 4 reviewers! I love this story and want to know how all of you feel about it. I promise I don't bite! _

_-Phantom_


	8. Chapter VIII

_This was a surprisingly difficult chapter for me to write, in that I was writing as I went and it was quite emotional. I actually rather like how it's going. If you don't, that's fine. I'd like to know your thoughts, anyway. As a note, the name Cache is pronounced 'Cash'. A cache is a hidden stash of items._

_LadyLioness, deer and dwarf pronghorn were indeed around during the Ice Age as were many other modern day animals. I did my research before putting in any animal. No need to worry._

_I want to thank my other faithful reviewers as well, goldenpuon and FABCHICKXO, who have stuck with me from the beginning. Thank you! _

* * *

Jasper groaned loudly as he became aware of the situation he had been dragged into. Humans were walking by, carrying various things; some he recognized and others he had no clue about their purpose. He spied three tamed wolves, each tied with thick leather strips to branches that were buried in the ground. Each wolf was positioned with a deer skin den on either side of them. They appeared to Jasper as if they were voluntarily guarding the humans' dens.

Jasper had heard tell of tamed wolves that willingly hunted with humans and guarded their dens at night. He had never believed those far-fetched tales though. Now he regretted tuning out his elders when they told the old tales.

The young wolf jumped at every strange sound and he saw the smirks the other wolves shot him whenever he did. He snarled whenever a human came too close and, at one point, snapped fearfully at a half-grown male who attempted to pat him on the head. The boy pulled his hand back quickly and rapped him sharply on the nose with a thin, bark-stripped stick.

"Don't bother; they'll beat you till you're dead if you bite. Believe me, I know." A strangely accented voice spoke from behind the black canine. Jasper swung around, sharply jerking the leather strip that held him. His icy eyes went wide at the sight of the animal before him. A dark russet wolf, no more than a year older than himself, lay limply in the snow. His legs were curled under him at unnatural angles, his ribs were clearly visible through his blood-spattered and matted coat, his golden eyes were dulled to pale amber, and his head lay on its side, half buried, in the packed snow.

"Who are you?" Jasper asked in a whisper, crawling slowly on his belly toward the injured wolf.

"Name's Cache, pup. If you bite a human, they'll either beat you till you're dead, or torture you by keeping you alive." Cache did not raise his head as he spoke. Jasper's ice blue eyes were filled with a heart wrenching mix of terror, immense sadness, and a spark of despair. Cache attempted a smile, but from his position in the snow, it came out as a half of a grimace.

"What did you do?" He asked in a whisper, as if speaking loudly would bring the wraith if the humans down upon them—and perhaps it would.

"Nearly killed one o' their pups. They broke my spine in half and left me for dead. The others attacked during the night—they've lost all honor and don't deserve the food they're given or the howls they were born with." Jasper imagined this giant wolf being beaten and then attacked by his fellow wolves. He imagined Cache had once been a sight to behold, with his russet fur and golden eyes; he must have been an alpha.

* * *

Raw chunks of, what appeared to be elk, meat was thrown at the paws of the other wolves. They snarled at one another and ripped into the food greedily. Jasper's mouth watered and he wondered at whether he would be fed.

The human boy he had snapped at earlier walked over to him holding a piece of raw meat in his hands. Jasper's eyes followed the meat and he was about to take a lunge at the boy when Cache's words flashed through his mind. Instead, he lay down and rolled over, exposing his soft underbelly and hoping that the boy understood the most non-threatening position a wolf knew. Jasper watched as the boy stopped and smiled at him before tossing the meat onto the snow with a loud thump. Jasper snatched up the morsel and carried it over to where Cache lay. He set it down and pushed it with his muzzle until it was right under the red wolf's nose. Cache looked up quizzically and Jasper gave an encouraging smile. Cache's dignity told him not to take the offering, but his belly told him otherwise. He nibbled hungrily at the meat, wincing every so often as one of the many shattered bones in his body would shift and send shooting pains throughout his withered frame.

When Cache collapsed back into the snow, Jasper's once ravenous stomach had quieted and he no longer felt like eating. He took a few small bites of the meat and curled up next to the older wolf with all the care and gentleness he possessed so as not to jostle Cache's broken bones.

* * *

Diego stayed silent; he knew the toll just telling about Cache was taking on the wolf. Ellie seemed to sense this and stayed silent, as did Manny. Sid however, "So, where is Cache?" Diego's eyes widened at the bluntness of the question and he whipped his head around to glare the sloth into silence. Jasper flinched as if he had been struck—emotionally he had—and continued with the story, paying no mind to the insensitive sloth.

* * *

Two long years had passed and Jasper couldn't remember the last time he had been allowed free run in a snowy field or hadn't felt the pull of leather against his neck. Two long and lonely years. Cache died of starvation and his injuries a mere two weeks after Jasper was dragged from his home. Jasper gave Cache every last scrap of food he received from the humans. Once they realized why the black wolf was growing thinner, they watched intently as he ate each night, to make sure he didn't share with the russet wolf. Cache just wasted away, a little more of him gone every day until there was nothing left.

After Cache's death, the human boy Jasper had taken a snap at and then submitted to, to a liking to him. The boy's father gave Jasper to him to raise and train. Jasper retained his distaste for humans, but he soon—as much as he despised admitting it--bonded with this particular boy.

The boy cared for Jasper well and he soon became the strongest and most prized of the tamed wolves. He began to understand the humans' speech by watching their body language and listening intently to their odd voices. He learned that the humans regarded him as a sort of spirit among wolves. They perceived him as something dangerous that had to be tamed and so kept him harnessed in leather at all times. The boy was his keeper and the only one Jasper responded to or respected.

Jasper awoke suddenly to the sound of other wolves barking in, what sounded like—he still hadn't completely learned the tamed wolves' odd tongue—a warning. He jumped to his feet gracefully and his icy eyes darted around the camp. Deer and mammoth skin dens were set up in a circle with a fire pit in the middle and the wolves were tied around the perimeter. From his position, he could only see two others; both, of which, were pulling relentlessly at their leather bonds and barking loudly. Jasper struggled to see what his brethren detected. He sniffed the air and caught a scent that he believed he had forgotten: saber. There was a pack of sabers headed this way.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the boy running towards him with a frightened appearance upon his face. He fell to his knees beside the huge black wolf and buried his face in the fur along his shoulders. He felt wetness there and shook himself from the boy's hug. The boy took Jasper's face in his hands and turned his great head so he was staring into the wolf's icy blue eyes. He said something in a serious tone and bent down and kissed him on a spot between his intelligent eyes. Jasper did not understand, but he didn't need to.

The boy pulled away and Jasper noticed for the first time a throwing spear in his hand. Jasper blinked, but did not have time to contemplate for a resounding howl sounded that meant the beginning of battle. The boy hesitated before bringing the blade of the spear down on the leather that held the ebony canine. Jasper darted forward the instant the bonds were cut and leaped raced toward an attacking saber. He was torn between the desperate need for a fight and the equal—and shameful—need to protect the humans.

The choice was taken from his paws when a familiar-looking tawny saber leaped at the boy—_his_ boy. Jasper made a snap decision and leaped into the path of the saber, who dropped back at the sight of him. A human, however, was not as quick to hold back. A sharpened throwing spear with a fire-hardened flint tip lanced down his side, slicing the flesh there as easily as claws through snow. Jasper dropped to his uninjured side in the snow and the boy fell beside him. He leaned over the fallen wolf, tears streaming from his eyes and tried to halt the immense bleeding by pressing his hands into the wound. The saber's face was one of absolute horror and, oddly enough, regret. Jasper finally recognized the animal before him and managed to choke out the name, "Diego?" before falling into unconsciousness.

* * *

_ I realize this is becoming more graphic and emotional than I had planned, but you can't have a happy ending without a sad beginning! Please read and review honestly. I'd like to hear from those who haven't reviewed as well. I know you all must have opinions and I would like to hear them._

_-Phantom_


	9. Chapter IX

_Sorry it took so long for this, but I've been working on this a little at a time as I've been trying to capture the half-formed plot bunnies for X-men: Evolution and transform them into a full blown story. Needless to say, it has not been successful. Anyway, I hope you enjoy--and review!_

* * *

"So you risked your own life to save a _human_?" Ellie questioned with disbelief.

"Why would you do that?" Manny added. Crash and Eddie were oddly silent and Sid was watching Diego.

Jasper shrugged. "The kid basically raised me after the humans caught me and it was either bond with him or end up like Cache; and I wanted to live." Jasper's blue eyes narrowed defiantly at the last part.

Diego took up the story smoothly, as if the two carnivores had rehearsed.

* * *

Diego watched helplessly as the boy Jasper had apparently died to save tried desperately to stop the bleeding. Diego knew that if he approached Jasper to try and help, this would be taken as a threat and he would suffer a similar fate. He leaped back into the battle behind him reluctantly. Only half his mind was focused on fighting. He received a few minor injuries and he was lucky that was all he got.

* * *

"Is that the fight where you lost half your pack?" Sid suddenly piped up.

"Yeah, Sid, it was. Can I get back to the story?" Diego said impatiently. Sid nodded and sat back.

* * *

Luckily for Jasper and Diego, humans were not yet skilled in medicine so when Jasper's breathing and heart beat slowed, the boy gave up trying to save Jasper. This was Diego's chance to make his move. He spotted his opportunity after tossing a human aside. The saber dashed forward and grabbed Jasper by the scruff and began to drag the unconscious wolf toward safety. Unbeknownst to Diego, one of the humans saw the saber drag the injured wolf away. The human knew the wolf the saber was carrying away and knew the boy who owned him would be heartbroken. He decided to follow the long-toothed feline.

As he rounded a large boulder, he saw the saber licking the wolf's wounds, but from his angle, it looked as if the saber were feeding upon the black-furred animal. The hunter raised his spear, but before he could throw it, the saber sensed his presence. The cat froze momentarily, as if assessing the odds, then shot off in the opposite direction. The human could see that the saber was already injured from the fight and guessed it was not willing to fight anymore today.

Diego chastised himself for not standing up to the human and defending his friend, but knew that with his injuries, he would surely tire before the human gave in. That still didn't halt the guilt that stayed with him ever since.

* * *

"Yeah, but, thanks to you, the humans realized that I was still alive after that and they saved me. Even though their healing skills could use some serious work. If they had let me, I coulda cleaned my wound better than them and then maybe my scar wouldn't be so bad." Jasper subconsciously ran a tongue over the long scar running parallel to his back.

"How'd you get away, anyways?" Diego asked curiously, cocking his head to the side slightly. The others seemed equally curious and also leaned forward.

Jasper shrugged indifferently, "As much as I'd like to say that I heroically fought off all the humans and made a run for it…"

* * *

Jasper groaned loudly and gave a small pleading whimper when his boy hooked his harness up to the sled, which was made of light-weight wood and packed down with four heavy animal skin dens and nearly 200 pounds of frozen deer meat. Jasper had been given the honor of lead dog when he proved—in a contest of strength—that he was the strongest of the tamed wolves. If the others lagged, he was expected to take up their weight as well and drag them in their harnesses if necessary.

He enjoyed a good run on the sled because it was the closest he ever came to running free. He especially enjoyed the times when his boy—now a young man—was the musher because the boy often gave him his head and just let him run.

Eight wolves pulled behind him and eight wolves waited along with him for the musher to give the cue to go. Once the human grunted his command the harnessed wolves pulled with all their might to get the sled moving. Jasper strained against his harness and placed one paw in front of the other until they were moving. They struggled to get the sled's momentum going and once they did…man, did they fly!

They had been running for a little over an hour when Jasper's harness began to loosen. The black wolf chanced a glance down to his chest, where he saw that the leather bonds that had restrained him for so long were beginning to come undone. His heart soared at the idea that he may soon be free. He gathered all his strength and charged forward, eliciting surprised barks from his teammates. When the musher attempted to slow the team by setting his snow hook and calling a halt, the sudden jerk ripped jasper free of his restraints and he raced full speed across the snow, howling in pure joy as he went.

He didn't look back once, knowing that he would see the look of disappointment and loss in his boy's eyes. He knew the sight would tear at his heart and he would be compelled to return with a wagging tail to his boy's side.

* * *

"I stayed near them and watched m—the boy grow. As much as I hate to admit, I…didn't have a clue where I was. We traveled so much, following the herds and all that I lost my way. I figured if I followed them they'd lead me back to my pack's territory. I'd eat what they didn't or couldn't. I was actually following them to the stag moose's breeding grounds when I saw Sid."—Jasper sent the sloth an apologetic look—"The humans hadn't made a kill since they started following the deer, but they—unlike me—had stores of dried meat to keep them going."

"And that's when you tried to eat me!" Sid stated.

"And interrupted _my_ hunt." Diego faked a growl and swatted playfully at the wolf.

Jasper shrugged and grinned playfully. "What can I say, a wolf's gotta eat and if that means disrupting the life of an old friend and threatening the life of said friend's other friend, then that's just gravy on the deer." Diego rolled his eyes while Ellie giggled and the possums argued animatedly over some small disagreement or another.

* * *

_First off, I don't know much about dog sledding, but I tried and I know that Neanderthals (sp?) didn't use the wolves they tamed to pull sleds (that came in the later forms of human ancestry) Second, did you catch my little...I don't actually know what to call it...at the end where Jasper says 'then that's just gravy on the deer.' That was supposed to be like our saying of 'Then that's just icing on the cake.' I thought it was rather clever._

_I want to know how you would feel if I didn't type out the rest of the flashbacks and just said something along the lines of 'Manny, Sid, and Diego continued on with the story of their meeting...' and then gone on to say that the rest of the story took several late nights to tell. I would put in some things about how the possums and Ellie laughed at a few things. 'Cause, to be honest, retelling the story is sooo boring because it gives you no room for artistic improvements. I mean, you can't change the dialogue. Anyway, please tell me what you all think. It would be much appreciated._

_-Phantom_


	10. Chapter X

_Finally, a new chapter! The plot bunnies are allowing me to write more for Ice Age now. Thank you, to everyone who reviewed, for answering my questions and putting up with the delays. I have many ideas for this story so it won't be stopping for awhile. All that is due to your support._

_By the way, what do you guys think of me including Jasper's boy and Roshan? I'd like to incorporate some things that could really be just a one-shot to keep this story going._

* * *

The days passed and each night, more of the story was revealed. A long discussion ensued on the night that Diego's betrayal was revealed to the others. Diego could not hide his shame as he told the story.

"Diego, how could you do that?" Ellie exclaimed, wide-eyed and uncomprehending.

"One word: Pride. I couldn't let Soto think I was as useless as he believed I was. Believe you me, though, the guilt came back to bite me. If I could do it all over again, I would have left the pack the instant I met Manny…and Sid." The saber added with a half-hearted sigh of annoyance.

"Speaking of the pack," Jasper began seriously but broke into a grin at Diego's anxious expression—the saber hoped his friend wasn't about to bring up something unsavory about his past life—"Whatever happened to your Sam? You two were close before I left; it ever go further than that?" Jasper's eyes moved slyly to the side to meet Diego's half-angry half-embarrassed eyes. Jasper didn't notice the flash of sadness that crossed over those emerald eyes.

"Who's Sam? You never mentioned her?"Ellie asked and looking around him told him that the others were wondering the same.

Diego turned to address the wolf beside him instead. "Yeah, it went pretty far."

"Far enough for cubs?" Jasper asked and Diego's green eyes narrowed in pain and he looked away. Jasper looked up in surprise at his old friend.

"Yes, there were cubs. Two. They were three months old when the humans attacked." Diego turned to his mammoth friend. "I guess we have that in common." Diego left quickly after that and the camp was silent, the only sound being the drone of cicadas and the chirps of a few crickets. Jasper followed his friend into the tall brown grass and melting snow.

"I know this is going to sound like a bad excuse but…I didn't know. I'm sorry, really sorry. I shouldn't have brought her up." Jasper's head was lowered but his eyes rose to try and meet the saber's saddened eyes. The black wolf's whole demeanor made his words ring true in Diego's mind, but the pain that memory held had left a deep scar that, after all this time, hadn't quite healed.

"No, you shouldn't have. We don't know each other as well as we once did. We've both changed." Diego's emerald eyes narrowed and Jasper had to wince at the harshness in the saber's voice.

The pair sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity before Diego spoke up. "Sorry, you're right, you didn't know. I didn't have a right to get angry."

Silence once again fell over the two carnivores until Jasper broke the silence. "There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of 'em." Jasper turned his attention from the stars twinkling brightly above them to the saber seated beside him and as their eyes met, both grinned and laughed.

Diego rolled his eyes at the wolf and shook his head. "You and those quotes…ya got anymore?"

Jasper smiled at the fact that he could still cheer up the stoic saber with a few words and a laugh. "Two things are infinite: the universe and Sid's stupidity; and I'm not so sure about the universe." Diego couldn't help the laughter that escaped him. Jasper soon joined him. "I changed that one a little, but it makes it all the more true!" Jasper said between laughs.

* * *

The animals gathered around the fire cocked their heads and perked their ears at the sound of peals of laughter drifting from the direction the two carnivores had disappeared to. Ellie smiled and said, "Sounds like Jasper cheered him up."

Sid's smiled and tried to hide his disappointment. His earlier fears about Diego siding with Jasper to kill him had been put to rest, but now new ones flooded his mind in place of old ones. _What if Diego realizes that he wants to be with others like him instead of staying with us?_ Ellie caught the alarmed look that flashed across Sid's face and her eyebrows furrowed in concern for her friend.

"What's the matter Sid?" Ellie asked, catching Manny's attention as well.

"Well, what if—what if Diego would rather be with Jasper and Cass than us? What if he leaves?" A shocked silence fell over the mammals. The thought had passed through all of their minds at least once, but Sid had been the first to voice the group's fears.

Before any discussions on the matter could begin, the two carnivores stepped lightly from the bushes with smiles on their faces and laughs in their eyes. "You remember the time you chased that skunk into its hole and it sprayed you?" Diego teased the wolf walking beside him.

"You're the one who dared me to catch it! My mother wouldn't let me sleep in the den for weeks!" Jasper growled lightly and his eyes shone; his happiness at memories forgotten brightening the icy blue depths. He blinked once and padded over to his spot beside the fire. "I wish my coat was as thick as my head; it's cold out there." Jasper commented with a shiver to emphasize his point. Diego responded with a small shiver of his own.

Jasper's eyes wandered skyward as he took in the position of the moon and surrounding stars to judge the time of night, as only a wolf could. Diego had once asked Jasper to teach him how to tell the time by the position of the moon in the sky, but the wolf had been unable to do so—despite many attempts. Wolves just had a connection with the moon and stars that no saber could ever hope to possess; just as sabers knew the sun and foxes understood the mood of the land.

"I need to be getting back to Cass and the pup," stated Jasper, finally drawing his eyes from the stars. The large wolf stood from his place beside the fire and as he turned, his tail thick tail swept through the flames, causing them to dance wildly. Jasper turned his head to watch the sparks fly into the air until they were out of sight. When Diego stated that he would be going with him, Sid's eyes widened ever-so-slightly and the sloth declared that he was going as well. Diego sighed in slight annoyance, but had no real reason to object. Jasper only nodded.

* * *

Diego and Jasper groaned for what seemed to be the hundredth time as Sid began to tell _another_ one of his stories about his failed attempts to court a female. "So, I was talking to these females and I was telling them about how rhinos are actually very cruel animals and—"

"Sid," Diego said through gritted teeth as he shouldered his way through the tall grass.

"Yeah?" Sid asked hopefully, walking behind the two predators.

"Shut up." Diego finished with a glare towards the sloth. Sid's shoulders slumped slightly. Sid's hopes for some respect, however, were lifted when Jasper began to speak—they didn't last long.

"You know what, Diego?" Jasper asked the saber with an almost condescending tone.

"What Jasper?" Diego responded, knowing the wolf had something up his metaphorical sleeve.

"He would make a lovely corpse." Jasper said with a grin. Sid knew the comment was meant as a joke, but he couldn't help the rush of old fears that came with the utterance of those words. Sid stopped in his tracks and stood, frozen, with his eyes glazed with something akin to fear. Jasper stopped immediately along with Diego. The two turned simultaneously and began to make their way back to the obviously frightened sloth.

Sid, in his nightmarish-like state, saw their approach as an attack and turned and ran. The confusion and concern on their faces was blatantly obvious as they looked from one another to the retreating form of Sid. Without a word, they decided it would be best to follow him. They took off at a fast, ground-eating lope and soon caught up to the clumsy biped. Sid saw them, screamed, and ran faster. Their confusion only deepened.

"I don't know what's wrong, but we have to catch him!" Diego shouted.

Jasper nodded. "I'll pull ahead and cut him off!" Jasper pulled in a lungful of air and raced forward. Diego watched as Jasper darted towards a clump of trees and low-growing shrubs situated several feet in front of the terrified sloth. With a wall of close-growing foliage and a mountain of boulders on either side of him, Sid had nowhere to run when Jasper cut off his escape. Diego rushed in moments later to prevent Sid from leaving the way he had come.

Sid saw this and fell forward onto the ground, his eyes filled with a terror Diego and Jasper knew only from the prey they hunted.

"Please don't eat me! Please don't eat me!" Sid pleaded and begged and sobbed. All they could do was watch in horror as their friend begged them not to eat him.

* * *

_I was just as surprised as all of you when Sid had his little breakdown. It was like my creativity was bypassing my mind and going straight to my fingers. You should have seen me sitting there, staring at the screen in confusion and worry for Sid as I typed! I love it when that happens! My creativity finally filed me in on the details and told me to look back at whatever chapter it was that mentioned Sid's little drawing when they first met Jasper. I think it was Chapter 1. Anyway, i hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did!_

_-Phantom_


	11. Chapter XI

_Sorry for the long delay, but I've been heading up to Atlanta with my mom off and on all summer and my brother, whom we're staying with, doesn't have internet but he does have a laptop with Microsoft Word. Depending on how I break 'em up, I have three of four chapters waiting to post and then the epilogue._

_EDIT: I don't know how I left out such a huge chunk of my story. Sorry everyone._

* * *

Diego took a few hesitant steps towards the cowering sloth. Jasper hung back with the hope that maybe Sid would recognize Diego and come out of his waking nightmare. "Sid," said Diego in a surprisingly soothing voice, "Hey, Sid, what's wrong? If you tell me I can try and help. Is it something we did? Something we said? Talk to me buddy." Jasper listened helplessly to Diego's attempts to comfort the terrified herbivore.

Sid threw his arms up to cover his head and shouted, "You—you're gonna…eat me! Go away!"

An image of a crude picture drawn into the dirt from several days ago flashed through Diego's mind and the saber gasped in understanding. "Sid, Jasper and I aren't going to hurt you. We're your friends. We wouldn't hurt you. That picture…it was just that. You were upset that I wasn't going to spend all my time with you anymore." Diego glanced back at Jasper quickly.

Jasper took the hint and moved forward with a hesitant step. "Diego's right. I'd never hurt a friend of his—or mine. Plus, you're smarter than everyone gives you credit for. I understand what you're thinking, but it's not true. I'd never take Diego away from all of you. He's your friend now—I'm just an old memory."

The three mammals were silent for a time and as the tension faded, Sid's head lifted and he gave a shaky smile. Jasper nodded his encouragement and left, saying that he had to get back to Cass. Diego took a cautious step forward and nudged Sid to his feet. "You okay?" Sid nodded but didn't say anything.

"Were you serious?" Sid asked softly after a seemingly endless silence.

"About what?" Diego's brow furrowed in confusion. Diego tried to look back to see the sloth's face, but since Sid was leaning against his shoulder while they walked, it was a tad on the difficult side.

"About killing him if he tried to hurt any of us?" Diego stopped walking and stared ahead as he thought over the sloth's question.

Diego nodded and smiled back at Sid. "Yeah, I was. What's the saying? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."

"Makes the whole world blind and toothless." Sid added with a half-hearted smile.

Diego's shoulders shook with his gentle laugh and Sid smiled with a little more heart. "Yeah, I guess so."

Jasper's heart pounded loud in his chest as he entered the snug confines the tunnel created. He crept silently down the length of the tunnel until the scent of warm milk and the sound of sleeping pups brought on the nostalgia he held for his old home and pack. Cass tensed slightly as she heard the rustle of movement at the den's mouth, but relaxed when the scent of her protector met her nose. She smiled when she saw his large form silhouetted in the entrance and met his icy blue eyes with her own shining silver. Jasper grinned and the moonlight pouring in behind him glinted against his white teeth. His eyes held their own light as he padded lightly over to her. He bent his head to pick lil' Diego up in his jaws as gently as if the pup were his own. He lay down beside her stretched out form and placed her pup across his long forelegs. The little pup yawned sleepily before curling in on himself and falling back into the land of dreams with a sigh of contentment. Cass smiled lovingly at the both of them and lay her head down on her paws with a yawn of her own.

Diego and Sid returned to the campsite to find Manny and Ellie whispering quietly to one another and Crash and Eddie sleeping soundly in a tree above their sister's head. Neither mentioned Sid's slight breakdown back in the tall grass and spindly trees. Ellie looked up at them and smiled warmly. Manny noticed the fact that his two best friends were standing unusually close, but didn't dwell on the thought as Ellie had just wrapped her trunk around his and his thoughts had wandered elsewhere.

Sid collapsed on his bark bed and instantly slipped into something along the lines of a coma. Diego smiled, rolled his eyes, and went to lie down in his normal spot a few feet from the slumbering sloth, but decided that Sid might need a little comfort tonight. The saber lay down with his back to Sid and close enough to feel the heat radiating from his friend's body.

Diego heard someone whispering his own name is his ear, their warm breath tickling the delicate hairs there. His sleep-addled mind couldn't differentiate between the voices he knew and so he didn't know who was daring to wake him at this hour; truth be told, he didn't exactly care so long as they left soon. He growled whole-heartedly when that someone began to prod him with unsheathed claws that were nowhere near as sharp as his own. In fact they were quite dull--like a wolf's…

"Wha'dya want Jasper?" Without lifting his heavy eyelids, Diego growled and bared his intimidating sabers slightly in annoyance.

Jasper overlooked his surprise at Diego having correctly identified him--he had more important things on his mind. "Humans!" Jasper whispered urgently into the saber's ear. Diego's eyes flew open, revealing twin emerald orbs of fear and anger. Diego turned his frightened gaze on the wolf whose eyes conveyed the same feelings. "They're coming on fast! I was out for a run and I caught their scents. Apparently their dogs caught Manny and Ellie's scents as well. We have to move!" Already on his paws, Diego rushed over to Manny and Ellie who would be the most difficult to rouse.

The golden rays of the sun were just peeking over the horizon as Diego went to awaken his two mammoth friends. If they didn't start moving soon the humans would be upon them before they could move a hundred feet. Jasper hadn't said how many humans there were, but Diego's instincts told him that the wolf wouldn't have bothered to wake all of them if it was only a few. Diego looked back over his shoulder to see Jasper trying to rouse Sid and Cass and lil' Diego hidden in the bushes. He also saw that the sun was just shining through the branches of the tree he had been sleeping under just moments before.

After several anxious minutes of Diego trying desperately to awaken the slumbering mammoths Manny and Ellie finally blinked their eyes open. Diego then explained the situation to them and watched as they quickly--as quickly as a ten ton mammoth and a nine ton possum could anyways--got to their feet. Diego turned to see that Jasper had already explained everything to the twins and Sid--the latter of which was staring bleary-eyed at Jasper with something akin to suspicion in his mismatched eyes.

Jasper sent Diego a worried glance after staring oddly at Sid for several long moments. Diego was worried too, but there were more pressing matters to attend to. "We have to get moving! Diego and I will cover your tracks and your scent and we'll meet up with you…" Jasper seemed uncertain and looked to Diego for help.

"We'll meet up with you at the pass as soon as we can, but you have to hurry!" Diego finished. Manny hesitated though and his brow furrowed.

"We can't let you do this alone. We'll travel together and you can cover the tracks as we go." Manny insisted with a stern look that reminded Diego of times long since passed. Ellie's fear-filled eyes lingered on Diego, willing him to stay close to them.

Cass surprised them when she stepped forward and spoke, "If they catch you we'll just have to come back for you which will put us in danger. It's better if you listen to Manny on this one."

Both carnivores thought through the problems and advantages of this idea. The humans could be coming faster than they thought and the they might not have time to completely cover their tracks. How long would it take them to cover the tracks and scents of two mammoths, two possums, and one sloth along with their own was anybody's guess. Diego knew Manny was stubborn and wouldn't willingly let them put themselves in danger.

"Alright, but we're hanging back a good ways." Diego stated and Jasper looked a bit frustrated, but held his tongue. Manny agreed reluctantly, as did Ellie. Crash and Eddie clambered aboard their frightened sister. Sid still hadn't spoken a word and--even amidst all the other things he had to worry about--he was worried.

Diego and Jasper walked in silence shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of the herd a few hundred feet in front of them. Sid rode atop Manny while the twins sat on Ellie's tusks and Cass walked between the two mammoths carrying her only remaining pup in her jaws. The plan was simple: Manny, Ellie and Cass would walk for about half-a-mile then circle back in a wide arc then they would walk backwards in their own tracks until they reached a certain point where they would exit their prior path and continue on while Diego and Jasper covered their tracks and made new ones to confuse the humans. They would then cover the retreating tracks of their friends and Diego would mark the area so as to, hopefully, make the humans think twice about following. The dogs would certainly be hesitant to enter what appeared to be the territory of a pack of strong, able-bodied sabers.

"How're you holdin up?" Jasper asked, looking back over his broad shoulder. Diego, meanwhile, was walking backwards and dragging a large branch with wide-spread branches in his jaws to effectively cover their tracks. Diego turned his head and raised an eyebrow in question as if to say 'What are you talking about?' "I mean, that's the human tribe that killed your pack."

Diego set down the branch. "Then that makes them your humans." Diego growled, but Jasper mistakenly took this as a sign of his distaste for carrying the tree branch in his mouth.

"You're right, but you have a reason to want revenge."

"And you have a reason to run back to them with your tail between your legs!"

"What! What would Cass do then? I'm never going back to them!" Jasper's fur bristled and his lips pulled back into a furious snarl, white teeth flashing against the sun's glare.

"How do we know that? You talk so fondly of that human boy; you should just run on back to him!" Diego bit back his own snarl, but his hackles raised and his voice was icier than the wind that buffeted their raised fur.

Jasper had no retort on the ready, but his teeth and muscles were always prepared. Both animals were blurs as they leapt at one another. They hit hard and dropped into the snow; both landed lightly on their paws and instantly made a leap at one another. Jasper made to bite one of Diego's forelegs, but the saber moved his leg just in time; Jasper's jaws snapped shut with an audible click just centimeters from Diego's left foreleg. Diego lunged for Jasper's hind leg, but the wolf quickly dodged the attack and rolled underneath the saber's belly and kicked violently upwards with his hind legs. Jasper, however, was not strong enough to even lift the saber that was nearly twice his weight. Instead, Diego only got the breath knocked out of him. He quickly recovered and dropped down on the unsuspecting wolf, who scrambled to escape the saber's weight. Once Jasper was on his feet once again Diego slammed his shoulder into Jasper's side--effectively knocking the wolf off balance--and his left saber grazed Jasper's left shoulder.

The two pulled apart instantly for when the first drop of blood was shed--as they had decided long ago--the fight could not continue. They had never fought to kill, only to play or--in this case--to show that both had gone too far with words.

Diego stood with his legs spread wide and a thin white mist coming from his mouth as he regained his normal breathing pattern. Jasper was a bit worse for wear as he stood several feet from the saber with his tongue, pink as the neck muscles of a young deer, hung limply from the side of his jaws. A small trail of blood rolled down his left foreleg from the cut on his shoulder and ran between his two middle toes onto the disturbed snow beneath their paws.

"You always could beat me." Jasper panted with a grim smile which the saber did not return.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I'm just upset 'cause…maybe I believe Sid just a little. How do we know you aren't leading us to the humans like--like I tried to do with Manny and Sid when we first met? You did show up suddenly and then tell us those stories about the humans and now you're telling us they're coming after us?" Jasper could hear the doubt in the saber's voice, but he couldn't deny the feeling of hurt that radiated through his chest.

"I--I promise you that I'm not leading you to an ambush." The black wolf said with all the seriousness he could muster in his icy blue eyes; right now they seemed to be colder than the ice and snow they stood on. "If I'm wrong"--he lowered his gaze for just one shameful second before looking back into the saber's eyes with an intensity that made Diego take a step backwards--"If I am wrong you have the right to sink your sabers into my throat and take revenge for my treachery." After a long moment, Diego nodded, picked up the tree branch, began walking again. Trotting to catch up, Jasper followed without a word or even a glance. Both knew that if it came down to it they would carry out their promises--that was the way the world worked.

Ears pricked and tails erect, the dogs slowly made their way through the snow. Earlier that day, the dogs had caught the scent of a strange herd. The musty smell of mammoths reached them first, then the equally musty possum along with the pungent scent of sloth. That wasn't what really caught their attention, though. No, that was left for the strong earthy aroma of a large male saber. Maybe he was tracking them?

No matter, their humans wanted them to track this strange herd and they felt like eating tonight. The humans knew nothing of the other oddities in this herd; the tamed wolves knew only how to react to the musty aroma of mammoth. The dogs circled one another while trying to keep the scent in their sensitive noses. When one picked it up they would all move towards him in the hopes that the trail had finally been recovered. Somehow, the trail had been lost. Until, that is, the wolf their masters had deemed their leader recovered the scent and ordered them to follow. Tonight, they would eat!

The leader lost it once more until he spotted a sizeable splash of blood across the purity of the snow. He raced forward and inhaled as much of the scent as he could before telling the rest of the pack that the saber had attacked a wolf. The lead wolf narrowed his eyes against the wind and tried to identify the scent that seemed so familiar to him. The name eluded him, but an image of a young ebony-furred wolf with fear and compassion in his eyes flashed through his mind's eye.

He yelped when his human jerked quickly at his lead and ordered him forward. Paws sore and heart racing, he darted forward and felt his human release his lead as he raced forward to take his place at the lead of the pack of so-called tamed wolves--you can take the wolf off the ice, but you can't take the ice out of the wolf.

* * *

_Can anybody guess who the mystery wolf is? I personally, liked this chapter as it brought back an old ally and Jasper and Diego get to have a little 'disagreement'. As always, I ask that you be truthful if you are going to leave a review and to tell me what you liked or didn't like about the chapter or even the whole story. _

_-Phantom_


	12. Chapter XII

_Okay, much longer chapter because the place I wanted to cut it off at only left the chapter with 1, 024 words. The humans are finally coming into play. The human parts were very difficult as only Cache and Jasper can understand them and huamsn don't naturally communicate through body language as non-human animals do._

* * *

"What happened to you two?" Manny asked incredulously. Ellie's eyes widened in concern as she turned to see what Manny was referring to. Jasper was limping slightly and leaning against Diego's broad shoulder every few steps for support. Cass, who held her pup tightly in her jaws, had heard it all and continued forward without pause.

Jasper smiled sheepishly. "We had a little disagreement."

"You were fighting?" Ellie's voice raised an octave and Diego winced at her apparent concern.

"Like Jasper said we just had a little disagreement. At least now I'm sure there's no ambush for us up ahead." Manny's eyes widened slightly before narrowing in suspicion. Diego was brushing this off as nothing, though Manny, Ellie and even Sid and the possums could see the tension in his shoulders as his tawny fur brushed against Jasper's ebony pelt. They wisely decided that it would be better if they didn't ask.

Ellie looked at her brothers who were sitting silently on her tusks. "What's wrong guys?" Crash and Eddie looked around at her like they had just been awakened from a dream and blinked a few times.

"Huh?" asked Crash.

"I said 'What's wrong guys?'"

"It's just…" Crash trailed off.

"We've never seen humans before and--"

"From what we've heard…"

"We're trying to be quiet so they don't find us."

"We're also a little scared, Ellie." Crash hugged Ellie's trunk tightly and was soon joined by Eddie. Ellie smiled and patted them both on the head with her trunk.

"Don't you worry your pretty little heads, Diego and Jasper know what they're doing and we'll get out of this just like we have every time before this." Ellie smiled warmly down at them and they returned the gesture. She hid her worry from her brothers as she gazed back at said mammals. She caught Sid's eye as she turned away and gave him a reassuring smile.

Suddenly, a haunting howl arose from the distance. It rose in pitch until it became nearly ear-splitting then dropped low and carried on until it reached its abrupt end. Fear evident in their eyes, Jasper and Cass both felt a biting chill run down their spines.

"It's a hunting call." Cass whispered as if she believed that if she spoke too loud wolves would rush from the undergrowth with teeth bared and hackles raised.

"They've found our scent." Jasper added and pressed his uninjured shoulder against Cass in an attempt to comfort her and her shaking pup. "Let me carry him." He whispered to her and licked her face softly. She reluctantly picked the little brown bundle up from where she had set him down between her front legs and put him down again in front of Jasper. He smiled sadly at her and gently grasped lil' Diego in his jaws.

"We have to run!" Diego said to Manny and Ellie who hesitated. "We can't risk a fight!" He insisted and the two mammoths moved forward at a quick trot. Jasper and Cass took off at a characteristically lupine, ground-eating lope that a wolf could keep up for days if he was in good condition--unfortunately, Jasper was not. He stumbled a few times, but always regained his balance and his iron-fisted hold on lil' Diego. Unfortunately for Diego sabers are not long distance runners; he kept falling behind as he tried to pace himself.

They all heard the excited barks and cries from the pursuing wolves and their humans. The snow churned up by the retreating herd turned to powder as it flew through the air. "They're closing in!" Diego called. Jasper's eyes widened and his firm grip on his charge tightened by the smallest degree. He made a snap decision and gritted his back teeth as he made a sharp left and turned back towards Manny. Jasper saw the surprised looks he was receiving as he leapt high into the air, but his eyes were only for Manny. His paws thudded hard against the mammoth's hide. Quick as death, he deposited lil' Diego in Sid's arms, leapt from Manny's back and raced back, past Diego and the others with a grim expression.

"Go ahead! We don't have time to argue!" Jasper ordered. Diego nudged Manny forward with his shoulder when he saw the mammoth hesitate.

_What is he doing?_ Cass wondered. _Please be okay._

_What's he trying to do now?_ Diego questioned. _If you get hurt…I don't know what I'll do._ "I'll kill him, that's what!" Diego mumbled to himself, though he didn't believe the words himself. He cast a worried glance over his shoulder, but Jasper was long gone by now. Diego could scarcely see his friend's paw prints in between his own wider, deeper ones.

_

* * *

_

If I don't make it back…I'm sorry Cass. I really am. I never meant to put you or your pup in danger.

He told the silver she-wolf in his mind, hoping that she understood his motives. An image of the silver she-wolf flashed through his mind's eye as he raced determinedly towards his old human tribe; tongue lolling and kicking up snow and powder. The pain from his earlier fight with Diego was lancing up his shoulder, but he would not let some minor injury keep him from protecting his…family. He gave a small smile at that line of thought.

His senses told him that his former 'pack' was dead ahead. He could hear their ragged breathing and the lead dog's baying call to attack. His ears perked uncertainly; something about that bark made him think of old times and vanished friends. Jasper shook his head to clear it of that particular thought; he couldn't let those thoughts cloud his judgment.

* * *

"What is Jasper up to?" Ellie asked.

"He's going to try and divert the tribe's attention away from us so we can have enough time to get away." Cass answered sadly as she trotted beside the she-mmoth. She glanced up to see that Ellie had turned her face away to focus on the ground in front of her. Cass sighed and looked up and to her left to see Sid silently cradling her son in his arms. Lil' Diego was sound asleep and Cass let a small' relieved smile find its way to her muzzle.

* * *

"Who are you?" growled a small grey wolf with a v-shaped scar in his left ear. Jasper stepped forward and let a vicious snarl rip its way up his throat and echo around the large clearing. His lips were pulled back into a horrible snarl and his shining white fangs were as white as the snow that they stood on and contrasted deeply with Jasper's black as night coat. The grey wolf took a small step backwards and another, larger wolf with russet fur and golden eyes. The realization struck Jasper like a rhino's horn and the snarl was replaced by a baffled expression. All of the other wolf's hostility dropped like a rock and an equally astounded expression took hold.

"Cache!?"

"Jasper!?"

"How are you alive?"

"How are you alive?"

"You were dead when they dragged you away that night!"

"I was told that you ran off and were killed by a pack of sabers!"

"I--wait, what?"

"I said--"

"I know what you said! Explain it though!" The other wolves in the clearing mumbled uncertainly among themselves and stared curiously at the two wolves at their center.

The _whoosh!_ of a spear sailing through the air silenced the mutterings, but only when the spear landed solidly in the snow between the two wolves at the clearing's center did all sounds cease. Jasper stared at the ominous piece of wood in shock. Cache's face was one of fear for his old friend.

Two humans stepped from the trees. Only the older of the two held his spear at the ready. At the sight of the eldest human, Jasper's icy eyes widened until the whites of his eyes reflected the rising rays of the sun. It's--It's my boy! His boy made a signal that Jasper recognized even after all this time. Cache's eyes hardened; Jasper's heart jumped into his throat.

"Link…Drake…Dash…Hunt… Marsh…Eve…back down." The russet wolf's voice was as solid as a glacier and just as cold. The wolves looked uncertain whether to listen to their master or their leader. The decision was made quickly; all six wolves dropped their heads, spread their forelegs, bared their teeth, and snarled. Though mystified, Cache hardened his resolve and turned his back to Jasper and faced his former pack. Jasper ignored the relief that flooded him and dropped into a defensive stance. Jasper's eyes followed his boy's every move and begged him to remember the wolf pup he had raised.

Jasper saw the sudden flash of recognition in those eyes and watched as his boy lowered his spear. He made a signal to the wolves, telling them to cease, then stepped forward into the circle created by the pack's bodies. Cache took a few steps back, but Jasper stood steady as his boy approached.

Chapter 13

Diego paused mid-step and listened to the sound of a familiar wolf's howl. Cass had also stopped and was now listening with a smile on her face.

"What's he saying?" Diego asked softly.

"Who is that?" Ellie asked.

"Is that Jasper?" came Sid's question.

"He says he's found his boy and that he and a good friend are coming to meet us." She looked to her left and saw Manny's suspicious expression. "He also says not to worry, Manny…He's bringing Pinkie too." Diego, Sid, and Manny's faces all lit up with excitement and disbelief.

"Pinkie?" asked Sid.

"How does he know it's him?" Manny's tone held more disbelief than excitement; quite the opposite of the floppy green thing that rode atop his head.

"He can understand most, if not all, of their language." Diego began quietly.

Cass finished, "His boy told him."

The silence was killing the twins. "So….we just wait here for them?" Crash asked what was on all of their minds. Cass couldn't find words; Diego just shrugged.

A sudden rustling in the stiff undergrowth behind them called everyone's attention. Jasper and a slightly smaller, unfamiliar russet wolf stepped from the undergrowth. Jasper flicked his tail, signaling the other wolf to stay back as he padded forward to greet his friends. Cass rushed forward and buried her muzzle in the thick fur on his neck. Sid handed lil' Diego to Manny who lowered him to the ground to go greet his surrogate father. The chocolate-furred wolf pup rushed Jasper and nearly tackled the larger wolf with oversized paws and a ceaseless licking tongue.

Cache sat back and watched the surprising display of affection. "Are they yours?" asked the russet wolf with a tip of his head towards Cass and lil' Diego. Jasper looked up with confusion written across his face. "Your mate? Your pup?" Cache clarified for him. Jasper blinked a few times and looked back at the both of them then turned back to Cache with a soft smile.

"I--I think they are."

"Jasper, who is this?" Ellie asked warily.

"Oh," He jumped as if suddenly remembering the other wolf's presence, "guys this…is Cache."

Maybe Crash was a psychic. "No way!"

Eddie, ever the one to state the obvious. "Dude, you said he died!"

"How can he be sitting right there!?" Crash chimed.

Jasper opened his mouth to answer then closed it again; Cache hadn't told him that story. "The humans took me to their healer. Turns out they still wanted me after all that." Cache's stance and voice showed amusement, but his eyes told a different story. Jasper stared hard at the other wolf for what seemed an eternity before turning to Manny, Ellie, and the others.

"You ready to meet Pinkie?"

Jasper and Cache had left nearly a half an hour ago to retrieve his boy and Pinkie. The nervous energy running through Manny caused him to fidget restlessly and snap at almost everyone; he no more believed that the black wolf had found the human boy they had dubbed 'Pinkie' than he believed that Diego would all of a sudden become a vegetarian. Ellie seemed nervous as well, while Sid was only anxious to see the boy they had rescued from certain death again and the twins were anything but nervous. Diego sat silently with his back to all of them.

Manny tensed when Diego gracefully leaped to his feet. Seconds afterwards, Jasper and Cache stepped from the underbrush for the second time that day only this time two human men stepped out behind them. Neither held spears or any weapons, but Manny still pushed Ellie behind him protectively. The eyes of everyone in the herd save Diego and Manny widened—Sid's in recognition and disbelief, Ellie and the twin's in wariness and awe. Diego was equally stunned, but kept his emotions hidden, while Manny's face was one of suspicion, apprehension, and a hint of unmistakable loving recognition—the boy they had cared for all that time ago, was now grown and standing before him again. The bull mammoth couldn't help the small flash of pride he felt at the sight of the young man; dressed in deer skins from head to toe, long thick hair hanging in his eyes and a painted-on saber's paw print adorning the cloth above his heart. _Wonder what Diego will think of that?_ Manny thought absently.

The boy's small dark eyes were alight with something akin to amazed recognition. He grew up listening to the story of his early childhood, but never actually believed those farfetched stories of a small child being returned to his father by a mammoth and a sloth. He had always had dreams of those animals, but had written it off as childish fantasies due to the crazed imaginations of his elders. Though, one element of those dreams kept him from completely dismissing the idea: the saber. His father and the others had never mentioned a saber being in the group, yet every time he had one of those dreams the saber would be there.

Diego tensed as the boy's eyes rested upon him. The boy locked eyes with the saber and both knew instantly that they had surely met before. The boy smiled and Diego only stared in shock. _Sid was…right? How is that even possible?_ Diego thought back to when Sid had suggested that because the herd had raised the boy that he wouldn't hunt them all that time ago. He blinked a few times and turned his head to see the others' reactions. Sid was staring with open awe and elation while Manny's face was written with disbelief and a slight hint of his usual over-protectiveness and Ellie only gazed in amazement and slight awe; if the twins opened their jaws any farther they would hit the ground. Diego smirked slightly and turned his attention to his right where Jasper sat beside Cache—both of which seemed quite pleased with themselves—with Cass and lil' Diego on his other side. Cass kept her son between her front paws and her determined and slightly fearful glare never left the humans.

They all jumped when the eldest human spoke while glancing in Cache's direction. The russet wolf stood, ears perked to listen, trotted quickly towards the man and sat before him obediently. The man said a few more things before Cache turned back to the herd and Jasper's family.

"He says to tell you thank you. He doesn't know what he would have done if that saber had gotten Roshan too."—only Jasper and Sid noticed Diego's guilt-ridden wince at those words—"He also wishes that you will allow Roshan to stay with you for a night or two to become…reacquainted with his saviors." Manny's brow furrowed and Diego frowned; no matter that they had basically saved the child's life, he was a human hunter now and would not hesitate to take them all in their sleep. The two also knew that they would never hear the end of it from Sid if they were to deny this opportunity.

Diego shot Jasper a glance that said _"We're not going to be sleeping tonight"_ and stepped forward with a quick, steadying glance to Manny. He stared hard at the large russet wolf that sat loyally at the feet of his masters before moving his eyes up to meet those of the boy he helped rescue all that time ago. The boy released a small gasp and took the tiniest step backwards; the pungent scent of fear filled his nostrils and his instincts told him the human would be easy prey, but he stopped his thoughts before they went too far.

"Tell them we said it's alright as long as _all_ weapons stay with his father." Diego stated; his voice leaving no room for discussion. He was not about to let _his_ herd be taken down by a scrawny human boy and his elderly father. Cache turned to play another game of charades with the communication-deficient humans.

After a few moments, Cache turned back to them. "The father wants to stay as well. He can see that you don't want to lose Jasper for the night and he wants to spend time with him." When Diego made no reply Cache continued. "He agrees to the no weapons rule. Jasper and I will go with him to bury the spears." The saber visibly relaxed yet the tension still stayed in his thick shoulders as he nodded his approval.

The father saw this and raised his spear slowly, indicating that he was going to bury the weapon, and turned with Jasper and Cache on his heels. Diego watched them go with something akin to distraught in his emerald orbs. _Jasper seems so happy with that human. What if…_ He was pulled abruptly from his thoughts by a nervous cough from the boy, who still stood beneath the tree, looking anxious and slightly fearful. _As he should be. There are three mammals here that could kill him with ease…one of which would enjoy the kill._ Diego shook his head free of those thoughts and turned, hoping that the boy would know to follow.

Diego could hear the soft footfalls of the boy's boots against the powdery snow as he trailed behind the predator. Manny and the others turned with him. Manny kept one eye on the boy and one eye on Ellie the entire time. Sid dropped back to walk to the side of the boy. Roshan smiled nervously and waved to Sid who returned the gesture enthusiastically. Roshan seemed to relax slightly.

* * *

_Don't worry about those wolves Cache mentioned, they're only very small characters. You may see them again, but the biggest part they'll have is in...oops, can't tell you that! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and remember to leave a truthful review!_

_-Phantom _


	13. Chapter XIII

_I guess it's not enough to say sorry to all of you. I've been meaning to finish this up but...I recently started my first ever relationship (XD) and I've kinda been preoccupied with him. I'm sorry and I know that's no excuse. Anyway, please forgive me and enjoy this chapter. I'm having a hard time writing the humans in because I don't want this to be one of those stories where Roshan is magically cursed with the ability to speak to animals. Though I was thinking of having Roshan slowly begin to remember the language of the animals. That seems the best way to continue without giving up on the humans all together._

* * *

Diego paused mid-step and listened to the sound of a familiar wolf's howl. Cass had also stopped and was now listening with a smile on her face.

"What's he saying?" Diego asked softly.

"Who is that?" Ellie asked.

"Is that Jasper?" came Sid's question.

"He says he's found his boy and that he and a good friend are coming to meet us." She looked to her left and saw Manny's suspicious expression. "He also says not to worry, Manny…He's bringing Pinkie too." Diego, Sid, and Manny's faces all lit up with excitement and disbelief.

"Pinkie?" asked Sid.

"How does he know it's him?" Manny's tone held more disbelief than excitement; quite the opposite of the floppy green thing that rode atop his head.

"He can understand most, if not all, of their language." Diego began quietly.

Cass finished, "His boy told him."

The silence was killing the twins. "So….we just wait here for them?" Crash asked what was on all of their minds. Cass couldn't find words; Diego just shrugged.

A sudden rustling in the stiff undergrowth behind them called everyone's attention. Jasper and a slightly smaller, unfamiliar russet wolf stepped from the undergrowth. Jasper flicked his tail, signaling the other wolf to stay back as he padded forward to greet his friends. Cass rushed forward and buried her muzzle in the thick fur on his neck. Sid handed lil' Diego to Manny who lowered him to the ground to go greet his surrogate father. The chocolate-furred wolf pup rushed Jasper and nearly tackled the larger wolf with oversized paws and a ceaseless licking tongue.

Cache sat back and watched the surprising display of affection. "Are they yours?" asked the russet wolf with a tip of his head towards Cass and lil' Diego. Jasper looked up with confusion written across his face. "Your mate? Your pup?" Cache clarified for him. Jasper blinked a few times and looked back at the both of them then turned back to Cache with a soft smile.

"I--I think they are."

"Jasper, who is this?" Ellie asked warily.

"Oh," He jumped as if suddenly remembering the other wolf's presence, "guys this…is Cache."

Maybe Crash was a psychic. "No way!"

Eddie, ever the one to state the obvious. "Dude, you said he died!"

"How can he be sitting right there!?" Crash chimed.

Jasper opened his mouth to answer then closed it again; Cache hadn't told him that story. "The humans took me to their healer. Turns out they still wanted me after all that." Cache's stance and voice showed amusement, but his eyes told a different story. Jasper stared hard at the other wolf for what seemed an eternity before turning to Manny, Ellie, and the others.

"You ready to meet Pinkie?"

* * *

Jasper and Cache had left nearly a half an hour ago to retrieve his boy and Pinkie. The nervous energy running through Manny caused him to fidget restlessly and snap at almost everyone; he no more believed that the black wolf had found the human boy they had dubbed 'Pinkie' than he believed that Diego would all of a sudden become a vegetarian. Ellie seemed nervous as well, while Sid was only anxious to see the boy they had rescued from certain death again and the twins were anything but nervous. Diego sat silently with his back to all of them.

Manny tensed when Diego gracefully leaped to his feet. Seconds afterwards, Jasper and Cache stepped from the underbrush for the second time that day only this time two human men stepped out behind them. Neither held spears or any weapons, but Manny still pushed Ellie behind him protectively. The eyes of everyone in the herd save Diego and Manny widened—Sid's in recognition and disbelief, Ellie and the twin's in wariness and awe. Diego was equally stunned, but kept his emotions hidden, while Manny's face was one of suspicion, apprehension, and a hint of unmistakable loving recognition—the boy they had cared for all that time ago, was now grown and standing before him again. The bull mammoth couldn't help the small flash of pride he felt at the sight of the young man; dressed in deer skins from head to toe, long thick hair hanging in his eyes and a painted-on saber's paw print adorning the cloth above his heart. _Wonder what Diego will think of that?_ Manny thought absently.

The boy's small dark eyes were alight with something akin to amazed recognition. He grew up listening to the story of his early childhood, but never actually believed those farfetched stories of a small child being returned to his father by a mammoth and a sloth. He had always had dreams of those animals, but had written it off as childish fantasies due to the crazed imaginations of his elders. Though, one element of those dreams kept him from completely dismissing the idea: the saber. His father and the others had never mentioned a saber being in the group, yet every time he had one of those dreams the saber would be there.

Diego tensed as the boy's eyes rested upon him. The boy locked eyes with the saber and both knew instantly that they had surely met before. The boy smiled and Diego only stared in shock. _Sid was…right? How is that even possible?_ Diego thought back to when Sid had suggested that because the herd had raised the boy that he wouldn't hunt them all that time ago. He blinked a few times and turned his head to see the others' reactions. Sid was staring with open awe and elation while Manny's face was written with disbelief and a slight hint of his usual over-protectiveness and Ellie only gazed in amazement and slight awe; if the twins opened their jaws any farther they would hit the ground. Diego smirked slightly and turned his attention to his right where Jasper sat beside Cache—both of which seemed quite pleased with themselves—with Cass and lil' Diego on his other side. Cass kept her son between her front paws and her determined and slightly fearful glare never left the humans.

They all jumped when the eldest human spoke while glancing in Cache's direction. The russet wolf stood, ears perked to listen, trotted quickly towards the man and sat before him obediently. The man said a few more things before Cache turned back to the herd and Jasper's family.

"He says to tell you thank you. He doesn't know what he would have done if that saber had gotten Roshan too."—only Jasper and Sid noticed Diego's guilt-ridden wince at those words—"He also wishes that you will allow Roshan to stay with you for a night or two to become…reacquainted with his saviors." Manny's brow furrowed and Diego frowned; no matter that they had basically saved the child's life, he was a human hunter now and would not hesitate to take them all in their sleep. The two also knew that they would never hear the end of it from Sid if they were to deny this opportunity.

Diego shot Jasper a glance that said _"We're not going to be sleeping tonight"_ and stepped forward with a quick, steadying glance to Manny. He stared hard at the large russet wolf that sat loyally at the feet of his masters before moving his eyes up to meet those of the boy he helped rescue all that time ago. The boy released a small gasp and took the tiniest step backwards; the pungent scent of fear filled his nostrils and his instincts told him the human would be easy prey, but he stopped his thoughts before they went too far.

"Tell them we said it's alright as long as _all_ weapons stay with his father." Diego stated; his voice leaving no room for discussion. He was not about to let _his_ herd be taken down by a scrawny human boy and his elderly father. Cache turned to play another game of charades with the communication-deficient humans.

After a few moments, Cache turned back to them. "The father wants to stay as well. He can see that you don't want to lose Jasper for the night and he wants to spend time with him." When Diego made no reply Cache continued. "He agrees to the no weapons rule. Jasper and I will go with him to bury the spears." The saber visibly relaxed yet the tension still stayed in his thick shoulders as he nodded his approval.

The father saw this and raised his spear slowly, indicating that he was going to bury the weapon, and turned with Jasper and Cache on his heels. Diego watched them go with something akin to distraught in his emerald orbs. _Jasper seems so happy with that human. What if…_ He was pulled abruptly from his thoughts by a nervous cough from the boy, who still stood beneath the tree, looking anxious and slightly fearful. _As he should be. There are three mammals here that could kill him with ease…one of which would enjoy the kill._ Diego shook his head free of those thoughts and turned, hoping that the boy would know to follow.

Diego could hear the soft footfalls of the boy's boots against the powdery snow as he trailed behind the predator. Manny and the others turned with him. Manny kept one eye on the boy and one eye on Ellie the entire time. Sid dropped back to walk to the side of the boy. Roshan smiled nervously and waved to Sid who returned the gesture enthusiastically. Roshan seemed to relax slightly.

* * *

_Okay, so I'd love to hear from you guys again. Whether you want to tell me I suck for leaving this story for so long or you want to tell me that my story needs some serious editing...I just want to know your opions. So don't be afraid to tell me what you think :) Also, I just realized that I screwed up majorly and left out a huge chunk of the story. Please go back and read chapter 11._

_-Phantom_


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